Artist’s Statement

Using long exposures ranging from 20 seconds up to 60 minutes, I have tried to filter out  what I call the "visual noise" of everyday life in order to reveal the fundamental, underlying  forms of our world  — it is these forms that I think we respond to on a visceral level.  My long time exposures average out all the short-term, temporal events — the visual noise — within a scene. 

I believe that our impressions of what we see are built up over time — a composite of many short-term events.  For example, if you meet someone for the first time, your impression of that person is not a snapshot in your mind of the first time you saw that person, but rather a portrait you have assembled from many separate moments.  Every time that person exhibits a new facial expression or hand gesture, you add that to your impression of who that person is.  Your image of that person — how you feel about that person — is formed over time, rather than upon a single expression or gesture. 

Likewise, I believe that our impression of the world is based upon our total experience.  For example, the ocean has always made me feel calm, relaxed, and contented.  If I were to take a snapshot of the ocean, the photo would include waves with jagged edges, salt spray, and foam. This type of image, while very dynamic, does not make me feel calm - it doesn't represent how the ocean makes me feel as I stare out over the water.  Instead, I am responding to the underlying, fundamental form of the ocean, the ocean's vast expansiveness and the strong line of the horizon, both of which are very stable, calming forms.  Using my camera's unique ability to average time, I have tried to reveal these forms — forms that, while often obscured by the visual noise of everyday life, have a profound influence upon us.

David Fokos