In early 2017 at the suggestion of a friend I joined Instagram. She told it was a good way to promote my work. I didn’t know how this worked and I pondered what to post and what to say. In the meantime, I posted some images I had on my iPhone. I had been playing around with using my iPhone as a camera for a few years to make photos. The quality at first wasn’t very good, but I liked using it to make snap shots, kind of like I was using a Diana camera. I used to various apps to create looks. It was fun and I was just messing around. By the time I joined IG, I had developed a look I enjoyed using apps to create a painterly look. I always wanted to be a painter, but never developed the skills. Here was my chance. In the early days I most often made images on my walks with my dog, Barney. Hence the title of this folio. As the work progressed and evolved, it became about more just morning sightings. And with an upgrade in iPhones, the look changed too. More detail, less abstraction. But the content remained about the snapshot. What caught my eye at any given moment with the camera that was always with me. The work is mostly about light, composition and the act of discovery. And the ability to record it in an instance and turn it into a painting. I decided that’s what my Instagram work would be about as well. Only these images produced with my phone. Largely for consistency, but also for the ease of posting. I shoot, I process, I post. At first, I received very little notice. Not that I get a lot now. But I did learn about the power of hashtags and joining wider groups of similar images with the same hashtag. It has all been a brave new world for me. And yet in some respects no different than the old one. It’s about seeing and the act of image making. Creating emotional bookmarks, just like I always have. But instead of a camera around my neck and a bag full of lenses, I use a “device” that’s always in my pocket.
