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Artist’s statement
All of my photographic work is based on my
feeling that people relate their surroundings to their
own and other, perhaps imagined, human dramas.
I use the still life venue much as a stage, and
objects, natural, machine-made or handmade as
metaphors for nature and human form. I think the
still life painters in seventeenth century
Europe, especially the Spanish Vanitas school, used
still lifes the same way I do. In some cases those
paintings were outright political or cultural
statements.
In many of my photographs I particularly like to
use chiaroscuro: strong, dramatic light and dark,
which also adds an element of mystery to the scene.
The pure beauty and sensuality of fruit, vegetables,
fabrics, vessels, rocks, vines, any small piece of
nature is usable on my stage.
The images entitled "Layers", or digital montages, are composites of several photographs, interwoven into one composition by the use of the digital program, Photoshop.
Howard Nathenson
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