AMS Pictures

Photographing Inspiration

One of the things I love about working at AMS Pictures is that they let me indulge my creative side.  True, ours is a creative industry, but sometimes we spend a lot of time fulfilling our client’s visions.  My work in still photography fulfills MY vision.

 

 

The AMS Pictures art gallery that visitors see when they first enter our building is currently displaying two of my recent photo series, “The Five Senses” and “Faith, Hope & Love.”  Like most artwork, these pieces have evolved from one life to another.  It all began when I shot a friend and model down in Austin with his face completely covered in mud, except for clean lines falling from his eyes, resembling the area where “tears” had washed away the mud. The idea was that crying was his only form of communication.

Loving that image, I decided to expand upon it and showcase the five senses in a way that emphasized struggle, determination, and resistance.  For example, “Touch” depicts a guy being tied up and tickled. Finding models to fulfill this expansion was fairly easy, as I have lots of both nice-looking and amicable friends at AMS Pictures who were more than willing to sit down for my ten-minute photo shoot.  Sure, one guy had fake blood coming out of his ears, and another was forced to lie on a bed of raw garlic… but it was all for art, right?

The second series, “Faith, Hope, & Love” came about because I wanted to do something pretty, not just “artistic.”  Therefore, I found three female friends willing to pose with props and symbols that represented the themes: a cross for “faith” and crossed fingers for “hope.”  It was simple, maybe a little clichéd, but the series turned out nicely as well.

New ideas often spawn other new ideas…. My still photography work has challenged me to come up with new techniques and themes to explore. It jump-started my creativity, and, in turn, spills over to my video work.  Expansion, growth, and exploration are vital not just to artists but to just about everyone walking on this planet. And that’s a pretty deep statement coming from someone who just wanted to take a picture of his friend with caked mud on his face.