About J Alan Constant

Artist Statement

The fascinating thing about photography is that if cameras were given to ten people (or a hundred, for that matter), and they were asked to photograph the same subject, the result would be ten very different images.  Each photographer peeks at his/her own particular world through the viewfinder.  As we look at the world through our single reflex lenses (not discounting view camera enthusiasts), we squint one eye; it is as though we were glancing in at our own inner state with one eye as we gaze through the viewfinder with the other.   So that, for better or worse, each photographer's images is a reflection of a private inner world as much as it is a statement of a more public external world.

It would seem that photography is also about working with other opposites: positive and negative, sun and shadow, exposing pictures in the light and developing in the dark, and after working in the darkroom, seeing what images look like in the light again.  But the point of working with opposites is to create balance through visual harmony.

Embracing opposite forces is what creates a photograph.  It is a balance of light and dark or, in other words, a balance between the conscious and unconscious worlds.  Of course, the balance between these two worlds is often shifting and always complex.  Because of this complex balancing act, I can't always explain what compels me to take a particular image or what keeps attracting me to certain photographs.  But photography to me in not necessarily about explaining whatever impulses motivate me.  It is more about asking questions than it is about finding convenient answers.

These images represent a visual notebook for me - my color diary as I travel and explore.  They are photographs that I keep coming back to over time.  I invite you to see through my eyes and to visit my own personal world of questions.