A fascination with natural light aroused my passion to explore through color photography beauty in the world. Light and time are critical factor in this exploration. Light varies with the time of the day, the season of the year. My photographs allowed me to travel in time: Ryōan-ji rock garden (Kyoto, Japan) -15th C; Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris) - 12th C; The Louvre (Paris) - 16th C; Temple (Luxor, Egypt) -1400 BCE; Trilobite fossil, Gros Morne (Newfoundland) - 350 million years.
Perspective is another important consideration. An Atlantic sunrise captured at 11,000 metres (cover) is different than a Varanasi sunrise on the Ganges (title page).
Stained glass windows are a primordial form of color photographs. They are dependent upon light and tell a story. Every morning for over thirty-five years, I have woken to morning light illuminating a century-old stained glass window (opposite). Each day’s light is unique; each morning I am caught in a discrete moment.
Over the years, I realised that establishing a relationship with my subjects was critical to begin to savor a privileged moment. Investing time to establish a relationship resulted in the images ceasing to be records of objects. No longer It, I could build an I–Thou dialogue with them.
The images presented were taken over 50 years. The actual time to take them was less than two seconds. Photographs once taken become embedded in time. Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still (Dorothy Lange).
Savor the precious light embedded in time.