Artist Statement
Originally from northern New Jersey, I have resided in Texas since 1987.
I have been involved in the arts since I began studying the trumpet in grade school in 1968. When you first start out with a musical instrument, things don’t sound much like art. With all of those boring scales and sour notes, the battle is with technique and stamina. However, my goal has always been the pursuit of the magic of composition, whether in music or photography. There is a mysterious moving power in composition, and that is what I look for in every photograph I create.
My training started at age nine with private instruction, and later in Music school just outside of Philadelphia. From there the school of hard knocks took me and my trumpet all over Europe with the The Glenn Miller Orchestra. There I learned how to play with some seasoned New York and European musicians. One friend on the band, Rolf Ericson had played with Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and others. I was mesmerized hearing the stories of traveling with The Duke on the band bus. My fellow jazzers are definitely an interesting bunch. Mostly they are driven to achievement in their Art form. They are driven to be the best technically and artistically. Above all, we are driven to be unique.
It was at this time I got my first 35mm film camera. Just like a musical instrument, the camera is a highly technical instrument that takes years to master. Initially, this makes it difficult to see the camera as an artistic tool. However, once you see an inspiring Fine Art Print, you realize there is no difference between a camera and a violin, or a camera and a trumpet. They are just tools that we use to create magic.
While continuing to learn the camera on the side, and play music, I went to work with a friend in Philadelphia in the Graphic Arts business. We were on the cutting edge of using computers to do graphic design and process film for commercial printing.
During my ten years in Graphic Design and Printing I learned about color and how to develop and process film. There were no consumer digital cameras in those days, but it was during this time that the first version of Photoshop came out. It was a great experience to work with traditional film and yet work closely with new technology. No one would have thought that the film camera could ever be unseated by these new digital cameras, but the rest is history.
I still play trumpet, but my creative energies are now dedicated to photography. My objective is not to take a lot of photographs, but to find and create the most powerful and magical compositions that I can, and then to produce the highest quality Fine Art Print possible.
On the gear side, I’ve ended up with all Nikon equipment, and have been happy with it. Currently, here’s what I’m using:
Nikon D3/D3x (Converted to all Full-frame when they came out, and sold all DX lenses)
Nikon lenses (all shapes and sizes)
Adobe Photoshop CS5/Lightroom/Capture NX2
Macbook Pro
Epson R3800
Thanks for visiting the blog.
Mark Esposito
EspositoMark (Twitter)
