James Phillips Photography

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Sarasota Magazine, Summer, 2010

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Many thanks to Sarasota Magazine (see Print media links) this month for using our work on the cover, and to illustrate a feature article by John McCarthy called Night Magic, about kayaking the creeks and mangroves of beautiful Sarasota Bay.

Upcoming Exhibits

Monday, July 19th, 2010

We’ve booked two new photo exhibits for this year. Throughout the month of August, our work will be on display in the Kotler Gallery, on the 2nd floor of the John F. Germany Library in downtown Tampa. In October and November, we’ll be at the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center. The exhibits include a mix of old and new images. Please drop by and sign the guest book!

New photos in the gallery

Friday, July 9th, 2010

I just added 5 new color images in the photo section, plus a second gallery of B&W infrared landscapes. Enjoy!

Statement

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

In a world that desperately needs subverting, nature photography is art at its most subtly subversive. Landscapes and animal portraits, no matter how finely detailed or sensitively rendered, may not stop wars, dramatically alter the course of human events, or even tweak the collective conscience -at least not much- yet they have a mysterious and undeniable power, and a healing grace. In nature photography, more than any other genre, the spiritual is glimpsed and made manifest. There is a profound and comforting resonance as what seemed chaotic is revealed to be harmonious. The commonest weed is miraculous, and sublime.

There is also an element of sadness, an implication that what is depicted is transitory, and, if it hasn’t already, may vanish the moment we turn away.

While I hold these generalizations to be valid, I still can’t say why some photographs affect me deeply. Or why I’m compelled to photograph some things and not others. And maybe that’s as it should be. It’s a meditative process, and, in the end, an intuitive response. A famous photographer once said “I don’t take photographs, photographs take me.” Another, whose work I love, said “the pleasures of good photography are the pleasures of good photography.” Lacking their Zen-like perspective, I say: “It depends, I guess, on how you look at it… “