Michael Sexton

Artist Statement

My work is about time and place. I use elements in the landscape to study form and mood. I have no desire to be a 'traditional landscape photographer'. Rather, I look to reduce the complexity of a landscape to tell a story or elicit an emotion. What I enjoy is working with minimally focused elements or motion blur to bring an extra dimension into the image.

This approach is quite different than 'traditional' landscape photography whose goal is often a 'pretty picture'. I judge the success of an image by the emotion provoked in the viewer. Whether its an experience of calm, excitement, loneliness or nostalgia that the viewer has, my success is measured by their response.

My work tries to reduce the landscape or scene into its most important element, rather than trying to capture the 'grand vision'. In this way, I hope to highlight elements are are often overlooked, like a tree or sage brush, rather than whole scene - the tree, not just the forrest.