"I'm a freelance photographer who has a passion for creating exciting images that provide a frisson exhilaration to entertain, amuse, inspire and awaken."
It isn't about saying how wonderful I think my photographs are - hopefully they speak for themselves, my aim is to entertain and inspire. If I can fire your imagination, whet your appetite and keep your attention drawn to my collection of pictures for a few seconds then I have succeeded. A good photograph should tip you off your comfortable perch, stir up your notions of safety, and make you dizzy...
Doing photographic things purposefully is my reward. Tenacity runs alongside creativity in my photographic world. A keen sharp-eyed approach fosters sensual, evocative and thought provoking images. A wicked and irreverent handling of a subject can often bring a wry smile to a spectator - for me a result. And with models on set I watch them carefully, what you mistook for vacancy is in fact passion; a carefully directed emotion surrendered and captured in a moment.
If I have a style, I am not aware of it. A thematic perspective is never far away while I shake off constraints of convention I never flinch from breaking rules and custom. In making photographs I'm absorbed with the completeness of the process, the surroundings and subject, merely fulfilling a role of exposing the experience.
Art nude photography is also part of my photographic passion, and by way of definition and explanation these words of Michelangelo resonate well. "What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognise the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed". If anyone visiting this site is offended by nakedness, you should leave now. But please tell your friends and anyone else you know who appreciates photography.
Art is subjective. You're not supposed to like everything yet if you do - that's OK.
"Photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place.
I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."
Elliott Erwitt photographer 1928-
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The truth is people seek photographs online for many reasons. These are not for debate here because the simple fact that personal choice has no concern to me indicating that some things are nothing to do with me.
Pictures are for looking at, and it’s a pity online viewing is a solitary activity unlike a visit to an exhibition or art gallery. Here a visitor can look at people looking at pictures who may have escaped a rain-soaked or sun-baked streets. And the hope is that the pictures will somehow get to them and that they’ll take away something they weren’t expecting and couldn’t predict. I’m always delighted when my photographs are downloaded or shared through social media.
Not looking for anything in particular, and maybe with little time to search long they come across a photo, a documentary/candid portrait, scarcely a picture at all, more a fragment of window and wall, the kind of thing you see out of the corner of the eye. And maybe that’s how the rushed web surfer sees it. But I’ve got great faith in the corner of the eye and with that remark of E.M.Forster, ‘Only what is seen sideways sinks deep’.
An online photo gallery after all, is not like an art gallery or a park. Not quite a place to observe people sheltering from rain, inside to kill time or eccentrics sitting in front of one picture for hours on end or folk on the look-out for a meeting and have come in hoping to pick somebody up – all of which are perfectly proper and legitimate reasons for being there. The faith is – that the art wherever seen will rub off, be taken in out of the corner of the eye. Because the corner of the eye is a good short cut to the back of the mind.
My thanks to Alan Bennett for the range of expression in this last piece of prose adapted from his ‘Untold Stories’, pp 476 & 494, Faber and Faber Limited, 2005.
Creative Photographic Collaboration
I am open to all kinds of collaborations. If my past work speaks to you and you would like to discuss the possibility of us joining forces on a creative project of some kind, you are very welcome to get in touch. Similarly, if you have a query regarding my availability, the licensing of images, you'd like to acquire a print or you would simply like to initiate a conversation, dialogue often initiates some wonderful opportunities, feel free to drop me a line.
Modelling
If you'd like to model for me simply email me. I don't bite, and will always respond kindly, politely, and quickly.
Commissions
It is necessity that from time to time I undertake assignments which can be varied. If you have a specific idea or project or then email your requirements giving details and timescale. N.B. I DO NOT UNDERTAKE WEDDING, CHILDREN OR PET PHOTOGRAPHY.
CONTACT: mbgimmeahugltd@yahoo.co.uk
Copyright 2006 - 2021 - Martin Billings - All Rights Reserved
