(Formerly "sleepdrone", changed to "crows_in_trees" on April 22, 2008)

Strictly amateur... a "punk" photographer. And by that I mean that I never took a course (and never will) and that my means are simple (and cheap). I forget some of the simple technical details and I am not a gearhead. Fancy equipment does not impress me. You need an eye first. Knowledge and gadgets and rules of composition are all very fine, but you need an eye.

I'm not sure how the above sounds... perhaps trite, perhaps too much attitude, but a recent event solidified certain things in my head, and I felt the need to make an "artist statement" even though I could easily argue that what I do is not even art. In the end, I am simply capturing and experimenting for my own enjoyment and curiosity, passing time. I am more interested in sharing these images than in selling them or self-promotion.

My father always had cameras around, as well as National Geographic magazines, and both are no doubt early influences. After some early forays with old Brownie cameras and the like, I started more seriously taking photos in 1987, using various 35mm film cameras over the years... my dad's old Konica rangefinder, my dad's older Minolta SLR, a Pentax SLR w/ 28-70 zoom-lens, and my late grandmother's Olympus point-and-shoot.

In 2004 I moved to digital, and discovered a whole new world. I have nothing against film. Chemicals or pixels, in the end, hopefully it's the image that matters, regardless of the means. However, I had been in a slump, and the immediacy of digital really stimulated my experimenting with a camera in ways not possible (or too expensive) with film, as well as my general interest in taking photos. For example, I've never taken so many photos in winter... it's actually quite rich in possibilities.

I like to try different things but I don't like to spend a lot of money, so for example, I use found objects or build my own filters. I prefer "in camera" effects rather than photoshop/post-manipulation. Digital surely has its faults, and it's fun to push the limits and exploit them (hey, film has faults too... like anything... y'ever hear of reciprocity failure?). The limitations are limitless :-).

Hats off to the real pioneers... I didn't invent anything, I'm just tinkering, trying to see, getting lucky sometimes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so ideally, anything goes.

-- James Schidlowsky, September 2007.

P.S. related accounts: 200 Montreal Stencils and 200 More Montreal Stencils... documenting stencil art I encountered during my walks.