Charles Badal

Artist Statement

I've spent a career working in the photo industry, including almost 30 years as a photographer for the Architect of the Capitol in Washington DC.

Throughout my long career, I've actively pursued personal work, believing it to be the full manifestation of what it means to be a creative photographer. Then, as now, my personal work continues to be central to who I am as a creative person.

My inspirations are many, but most significantly, I’m drawn to early twentieth century art in its movement away from the representational, and toward a more abstract vision. Currently, I create work in pursuit of a modernist aesthetic, inspired by the idea that what is essential toward the recognition of some meaningful truth lies within the photograph itself, and not external to it.

To express this, I often combine formal portraiture with unposed, candid street photography, urban architecture, and still life constructs, to produce photographs that are minimalist studies of structure, line, and form, and that are reliant on a strong sense of light and shadow.

I'm interested in the subtly expressed relationships found within these otherwise objective spaces, and the potential for an emotional response that transcends references to the representational.

With my photographs, I strive toward work that is unburdened by narrative, and unembellished by artificiality. I embrace the ethos of an amateur, detached from commercial interests, and driven by a passion that is a pure and authentic form of self-expression.