11/14/2025
𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝙸𝚅
A composite of two images (mine) and some digital painting/drawing in PS on a Wacom.
I’ve been recently inspired by some very creative and talented photographers that paint or draw on their prints or negatives. Unfortunately, the era of text-prompted AI pseudo-photography has created an online cabal of “straight” photographers ready to declare “fake” at anything that doesn’t pass their fundamentalist scrutiny. It’s a sad state of affairs honestly. The extremes create a form of reactionary stupidity.
If the scene demands a single frame, minimally edited image then I’ll create that. If it demands focus stacking, dodging/burning, curves manipulation, yadda, yadda, yadda, then I’ll do that. If a composite with drawing/painting is what’s called for, then I’ll do that.
To borrow from something Todd Hido expressed in a podcast I recently listened to: my images are really a charge in the air and whether or not they elicit a reactionary spark in the viewer is out of my control.