Artist's Statement / About John Etches / CV

   
In my photography, I am attracted to patterns that reveal the dynamic nature of the landscape. I attempt to capture the aesthetics of natural processes while exposing complexities and interrelationships. 

  In my work as a geologist, an environmental educator and a photographer, I have come to understand that nothing in nature is random. Each phenomenon in nature is a culmination of a set of circumstances; an expression of a force, a mechanism or a reaction. The pattern, colour, form and texture that I choose to photograph are the results of natural cause and effect processes. Therefore, the abstractions captured by my photography are not abstractions at all. 

  The natural beauty of the landscape is all around us; often we just don’t take the time to see it, or don’t know where to look. In my mind, my best photographs are those which prompt curiosity about natural phenomena. If a viewer looks at my photographs and asks, "Why?" or, pauses to ponder the story behind the scene, then I feel that I have really achieved something.  
 

All Images © 2005 John Etches