Hard Color Soft Light

Will introduced a novel style of printing with his four images in the Selections from Promenade show. It began as a way to express his impressions of the creative lunacy surrounding the Fremont Solstice Parade, and has since ballooned in ways he never expected.

The images have a handpainted look, which is simultaneously accurate and misleading: the areas that look handpainted usually are not, while many of the areas that do not look handpainted actually are (painted with a Wacom tablet, that is.) The overall effect of hard colors, soft light, and selective focus works very well for some subjects, less well for others, and not at all in low resolution Web images (unfortunately.)

“When I started this project, I had no idea I was going to have to relearn half of what I knew about photography and everything I knew about printing! I knew early on that I was occasionally blundering into interesting things, but I had no idea that the techniques that produced the energy of Shades So Bright would also convey the tranquility of Gilded Sand and the stillness and even melancholy of Early Tractor, Late Harvest.

“It turns out that I've found a fairly powerful way of expressing mood in a photograph. I knew I was getting the hang of things when I revisited one of my first attempts. Tulip Study 1 was kind of an interesting look at a pretty flower; Feu de Lis just burns off the page, and is probably (along with Desert Fire) the best print I’ve ever done.

“I’m not finished, either: I have several ideas about where to go from here. I’ll be busy for a long while.” — Will

Prints from this portfolio have been featured at the Selections from Promenade, Hard Color, Soft Light, Discoveries, 48 Hours, Photographs at the Crepe Cafe and Eastshore Bookstore Gallery 2006 shows.