09/06/2026
Shane Moore
Ghosts in the Studio Statement
My artistic inspiration really began with taking Photo 101 at APSU, where | learned black-and-white film photography. I learned to master camera, technique, films, and darkroom printing studying masters such as Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Alfred Stieglitz.
Later, artists like Michael Kenna and Keith Carter became major influences. They had different styles but shared a mastery of film and printing that deeply moved me.
My early work focused on landscapes and found objects, with an emphasis on precision in exposure, tone, composition, and printing. Over time, I experimented with films, long exposures, and unconventional techniques. I developed a more abstract and ethereal visual language in my photography. Rather than fighting the imperfections of film, I began embracing film's flaws and happy accidents as part of my creative process.
Long before photography, I was inspired by Impressionist and abstract painters such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Jackson Po***ck. Their influence led me to experiment in the darkroom with chemistry and light; moving away from "perfect" printing, I began producing more painterly, abstract work. Eventually I discovered the chemigrams of Pierre Cordier, whose process of painting with photographic chemicals resonated deeply with my own explorations. I have been making chemigrams for two to nine years and the work displayed here represents my evolution from tradtional B&W prints to a more absract form of photographic art where every piece of paper is a blank canvas.
chemigram - coined in 1956 by Pierre Cordier, the chemigram combines the physics of painting (varnish, wax, oil and the chemistry of photography (photosensitive emulsion, developer, fixer); without a camera, without an enlarger and in full light.
You can find my recent work always at Downtown Artists Cooperative
