Dan Henderson
Dan Henderson, Photographer
I have been interested in photography my entire life. With my little Kodak Instamatic, I was the “official” photographer of family vacations while growing up. Later, I experienced the alchemy of photography as I watched my first print appear from the developer in the high school darkroom.
About 12 years ago I began a serious study of photography, learning that it is something I can do as well as I choose. There are no limits except for ones that I place upon myself. If I continue learning my craft, and developing my way of seeing the world around me, I will continue to grow as a photographer. If I get lazy, or distracted by other things, then my photographs will be just pictures.
I am inspired by Monte Zucker, who followed the philosophy that “good enough” really wasn’t. He said that he went about his career in photography always trying to be the very best that he could be, never settling for less. I embrace that idea. Every exposure that I make, every film that I develop, and every photograph that I print and finish is the best that I can do.
I feel called to photograph things that have survived -and transcended- time: an instrument that has fallen silent, a truck no longer able to carry cargo, a building inexorably losing its ability to defy gravity. These things bear somber, dignified witness to the more elemental materials with which we once built our environment: wood, steel, and brick; and to the craftsmanship with which they were used.
What happens when we neglect our creations fascinates me. The moment they are discarded, nature begins reclaiming them back into the elements from which they came. Decay and deterioration are terms often used to describe this phenomenon. But I like the word “entropy,” the idea that absent the application of outside energy, nature tends to move from a state of order to one of disorder. Plants and animals begin using discarded things for support and shelter. Brick walls crumble into piles and eventually revert to the minerals from which they were made. Metals rust, becoming thinner over the years until they disappear. Wooden structures fall to the ground and feed the soil on which they rested for so long.
Whether from this natural, entropic process, through recycling, by being “rehabilitated” (and not always for the better) or as the targets of urban renewal, these vestiges are disappearing. My mission is to photograph them before they are gone. But I think they deserve more than a simple documentary record. When I am drawn to a subject, I look for its essence, a few elements that tell its story. I then find a composition that eliminates things that might obscure that essence. I use large format black and white film, and the camera and darkroom skills that I have acquired, to produce the highest-quality negatives that I can. I then use the lith printing process to emphasize the venerable qualities of the things that I photograph.
Dan will be a featured artist in the gallery March 29 - April 28, 2012 along with Barbara Norman-Lashley. Gallery talks begin at 6:30pm. Reception, Art By Night, Friday, April 6, 5pm - 9pm. The Quarter, a Louisianna-style restaurant and a gallery neighbor, will be hosting the reception on April 6.
cellphone: 616-836-6570
email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
web: http://www.danhendersonphotographer.com