American Landscape By William Neill

"Photography is a quiet, intensely meditative activity for me. Minor White, the Zen-influenced photographer, stated, "Be still with yourself, until the object your attention affirms your presence." When the light and the subject inspire me, I am compelled to compose an image. The images that I enjoy making the most are those that rely on emotional response and perception rather than the spectacle the scene. I enjoy isolating the details a scene, ten to the point abstraction. By creating photographs where the content or orientation is not obvious, an intimate and enigmatic feeling can come through. I would rather make an image that asks a question than answers one, one that intrigues and arouses curiosity in the viewer.
Photographing wild landscapes, depicting an image pristine beauty, absent the intrusions man, is a dangerous proposition bordering on creating a false mythology. Yet wild places do still exist. What little is left will be lost if we don't develop a new and enlightened stewardship our earth where Nature and Man are not considered separately. Barry Lopez writes, "Wild landscapes are necessary to our being. We require them as we require air and water. But we need, at the same time, to create a landscape in which wilderness makes deep and eminent sense as part the whole, a landscape in which wilderness is not an orphan." Perhaps the only way the world will change is for people to go through some kind a pround aesthetic experience that makes us aware that we are personally accountable for our actions and how we affect the environment.