Eric Gorham
April 10, 2003
Rickartist@hotmail.com

I began taking photographs when I was a young boy, using an old Kodak 110 to document the yearly road trips that my family would embark upon. It was during these trans-american voyages that I learned an appreciation for the beauty of landscapes. I’m grateful for the gift my parents gave me by visiting so many of the natural treasures that our country has. I’ve visited 47 of the states, and enjoyed seeing many of the great national parks.

I didn’t do much photography during my early adulthood until I received a 35mm SLR for Christmas. I had begun doing drawings and paintings of common household objects, such as lamps, saltshakers and vases. I wanted to try painting landscapes, but was intimidated by the constantly changing light out in the real world. I decided to try photographing the landscapes and painting from the reference photos.
I took a lot of pictures that I felt were good enough quality to use, but by then I had begun drawing and painting the human figure, and so had no time to paint landscapes.

By this time I had also discovered the beauty of photographing close-up abstracts of the world around me. I was entranced by the patterns and colors that could be discovered when looking very closely at something, a sort of tunnel vision, which allowed me to ignore everything else. These vague images engage me on a deeper level than the more obvious representations, as my conscious and unconscious mind struggle to make sense of the forms. I had learned about this process while studying psychology in college, but I was enchanted by doing this with my own imagery.

I hope that you, the viewer, can enjoy these images as much as I do.