Shara K Johnson, Nederland, CO
Member Since February 2010
Artist Statement Shara K Johnson.
I began travel photography in 2005. The countries most represented in my photos are China, Tunisia, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and the city of Prague. But you will also find several other countries and U.S. locations represented. Since 2006, my photography has been shown in galleries and restaurants across the Front Range (Colorado) and has been selected for several national juried exhibitions, and has also appeared in several online literary journals.
My goal in my travel photography is to make the viewer feel that they want to walk into the scene and explore it. Perhaps this is why I have a particular fondness for photographing things like doors, locks and hallways—for the sense of mystery of what might lie behind them, or just around the corner. I tend to shy away from natural landscapes. I focus more on cultural images and architectural features of a given location. I like to work with the hard lines and shapes of architecture, to appreciate how each culture manipulates them to express their perceptions of the world and their ideas of what is beauty and what is function. Though I like to hit many of the major tourist sights within a country, as they are usually popular for a good reason, I prefer to spend the majority of a vacation off the beaten track. Not only does this lead to the best adventures, but also usually to the best photography.
The pricing of my photos is sometimes correlated to the distance from "the beaten path" where the photo was shot. For example, in China, I spent time in a peasant village where no Westerner had been before. You will not find many other images like these. Or another example is in Tunisia, where I spent time exploring abandoned villages, accessible by 4WD, where the average traveler never sets foot.
I also enjoy photographing flowers and using kaleidoscopes to capture images. In this endeavor, I often look for the whimsical, and I find that it’s a bit like looking for shapes in clouds—my favorite photos are ones in which the flower looks like something else.
Thanks for taking a look and feel free to contact me with questions about the locations or subjects of my photography.
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