|
Thirty five years of
seeking the highlight.
Thirty five years of self portraits.
Visual questions and verbal images.
Always asking Why?
"How does a visual person define his life and
work in words?”
The soul of the artist is held in the negatives, every shot is a
self portrait.” -PJC
Why?
I have spent the last year or maybe more reflecting on my work
over the thirty or so years I have been shooting. It is, at times,
surprising and then not surprising at all that the actual images
over the last years have been reflections. Why? I will let you
know when I am sure.
As a young artist there is so much new
information to learn and teachers to please. Accepting that
an image is cool is enough to make you strive to create more.
There is no “Why”, just on to the next assignment. At what point
do you become an artist? How does one define the soul of an
artist? My work, I hope, stimulates thought. I hope that my
writing does also. I try not so much to offer answers, but to
offer questions. Why? The more often you ask Why, the more you
will force yourself to see an array of solutions, not just what
is convenient or what provides the most instant gratification.
The big picture isn't seen very much, but as an artist I take
more time to see beyond the convenient. Marketing is about
convenience.
There are lots of conversations on the internet,
coffeehouses and bars about the newest equipment. "If I just had
this new tool I'd take better photos." Why? Because it says so
in the ad. When I was in elementary school {late 50s} we took a
class trip to a nuclear power plant. We were told that by the
time we were our parent’s age that electricity would be almost
free. So what does this have to do with Photographic Art? The
most important tool you have is your mind and the more you allow
it to ask why the better it will work.
The soul of an artist is
defined by the questions he asks. Have the courage to ask
“Why”? To see within oneself. Without questions there won't be
answers.
© Peter J. Crowley January 2, 2003
The roll of the photographer is that of a voyeur, never
reaching his subject's soul, But for brief instances when the
subject's heart is offered, only to be interpreted and
re-created with a cross breeding of the image makers own soul.
January 22, 2001 © Peter J. Crowley
Today I went to visit an old mentor and to begin an odyssey
that I have been seeking. The mentor, Peter J Crowley, is a fine
arts photographer who schooled me in the art of the eye and
photographic techniques. The odyssey, the first of many visits
to an abandoned asylum that I have wanted to shoot. Both have
weathered with age and struggle....
-Scot Terban
Peter,
I'd be very happy to sign your daughter's book and less happy
but willing and honored to have my mug photographed by you. I
can't imagine being in the hands of a finer photographer.
-Author Wally Lamb
Peter J Crowley is a photographer based in Norwich, Connecticut,
USA who has an interesting web site with some fine moodily lit
figure studies that are worth looking at. Among his other work
is a limited edition book, 'All the Usual Subjects: Seven Years
of Willimantic Photographs', which documents "daily life in this
old mill town through a series of black and white photographs of
memorable scenes and portraits of local characters and friends."
It is available direct from the photographer. If the picture on
the cover and some of the others on Crowley's web site are any
guide, this work will be of interest to those from outside the
community also.
-Peter Marshall for Photography at About. Com
You were professional but it was also a blast. I had fun!! I
feel so good about myself. I look at my proofs almost every day.
They make me feel good about me!! In fact, I plan on having more
taken.
- Amy, portrait
Working with Peter was great. He came up with some awesome
locations and the results speak for themselves. I didn't feel
uncomfortable for a second.
- Sara, model
Peter flipped on some Hendrix and was very down-to-earth.
Together we came up with some interesting ideas. He wanted *my*
input and my ideas which was refreshing, I didn't feel like a
plastic doll.
- Heidi, Actress.
I want to thank-you for test shooting me last night. It was
wonderful. You made me very comfortable, and I enjoyed myself
immensely.
- Samantha, model
Peter is great to work with, a true artist and a joy to be
around. I recommend the experience!
- Hope Hoffman, dancer,
musician.
I’ve had the pleasure of working on my portfolio with Peter
over the course of two years, and my experience with him has
been amazing. He's taught me so much about modeling, and has
produced many great images that I’m surprised to say have
crossed that line between a simple portfolio picture and a work
of art. If you're in the area and have the opportunity to work
with him, I strongly recommend it... he's well worth it, even
the cost.
-tära
The images as presented on your web site for our review,
particularly the black and white fine art photography, reveals a
style of work that is highly expressive. There exists, in the
body of work, as a whole, a significant level of emotional
appeal. The structure and play of light is excellent.
-Gallery
Owner
I don't quite know what I expected. I guess I’m just surprised
that they express so much emotion...and I like that. They came
out better than I expected them to. I normally don't photograph
well.
-Kasey, portrait 5/22/07
Jeff Bishop, a fellow photographer, once said “you learn more
about the photographer than the subject from his images”.
Thank you for sharing your book; your
images remind me of a real classic Coltrane album.
catch up with you later,
-Frank Schiavone, Actor
Sometimes the muse is a woman, sometimes a flower. Most often
it's me. Peter J. Crowley
The first thing to notice and assimilate to upon entering
Peter’s private world is the lack of creature comforts. His home
is a studio, first and foremost, lacking any conventional
furniture, or hell-any conventions, period. Aside from camera
equipment, a computer, a bed and a galley kitchen, there is not
much in the way to suggest that this is a home. It is a canvas,
displaying framed art by the artist himself {with the occasional
political cartoon tacked to the fridge.} The photographs,
paintings and sculpture by friends. A hanging plant. A
radio/cassette player standing on end, all the better to receive
a clearer signal of that great college station that plays jazz
and old rock without commercials or Top Forty. You’d better
check your materialism at the door. Here is a man who doesn’t
compromise. Here is a man who is one of the very few who go the
distance, who hand themselves over to the passion of realizing a
calling. It’s art; it’s the naked eye, the rectangle. Walls
lined with black and white prints of the naked form, of
uncompromising woman and their uncovered selves. They’re not all
nudes, but those are the ones that stick to me, not for any
reason other than the fact that they seem a metaphor for Peter
himself. Unflinching, uncompromising, they are images of him.
© Lauren Sarant McNeill |
