Billy Newman
"With my camera, I reveal images unseen through our normal human vision. I explore plants, flowers, ice, light, motion… almost anything in which I can discover new images. I recently began exploring the spaces between what we see literally and what we think we see. In my botanical work, I started shooting petals or stems so close to the lens and so far out of focus, I could no longer see them, but the distortion they provided changed the image. No longer was a flower just a flower. It was a flower that appeared to vibrate or dissolve away. Realism gave way to impressionism and abstraction. The same thing happens with the ice and water images - as they offer different elements of distortion. In shifting the focus, I am no longer just photographing the ice, I'm capturing reflections and refractions as the light passes from sun to ice to lens. In essence I am capturing light itself. I want to see the unseen. We are constantly exploring realms of the unknown: space, science, philosophy, etc… I am no different than the rest of humanity. I simply use the tool I know best, the camera."