WILLIAM ABBOTT

Medium: Photography & Video , Visual Arts

Contact Information

864-252-7755

Artist Statement

I have had a love affair with photography for more than forty years. My photographic expertise includes Fine Art Photography, architecture, advertising, catalogs, fashion, photo documentary essays and portraits, including weddings and nude portraiture.

My work has been shown and sold in galleries throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, garnering several awards in the United States and abroad. My art training began in the 1960s with a foundation in Fine Art’s and then came Photography in the 1970s.

My approach to making art from nature is to simply go out and experience places that he would find intriguing.”I enjoy taking my time to just wander, and get to know an area to see what it has to offer, not just photographically, but spiritually. The photographs reveal themselves when the time is right.”. My interested is in studying the seemingly mundane; the places and objects that are often overlooked or deemed unimportant. I find beauty in the “unconsidered,” and the photographs portray feelings of stoic emptiness and irony.

I imitate life through renewal, freedom, energy, serenity, power and constant change; therein lies the inspiration for my current work. “In my work I like to capture the essence of those moods visually and transport you to a place in time outside of the present. I choose to photograph from my heart, which is very different than working with your head. When I see a scene that stirs my soul, I photograph it. Since I have been making images for over forty years, I instinctively see texture, light, and shadow with in a value scale and composition, which create a satisfying photograph to me personally. I’m always glad when it’s well received by others. I feel my images create an emotion that hopefully reaches out to people and encourages them to look differently at their surroundings.

A photographer’s negatives and files are, in a sense, his/her’s autobiography. More resides there than he/ she is aware of… As fragmentary and incomplete as the archaeologist’s pot sherds, they can be no less telling.No matter what the viewer sees, one thing is certain: I believe that my photographs are documents of my life.More importantly, they serve as documents of our general existence and the life that surrounds us.

When does a photograph transform into art? I think it’s obviously the person behind the camera who creates the image. In any form of art you go from a craftsman to an artist. There’s a point when that happens. It’s a mystery. Art doesn’t come from fancy equipment. It comes from a way of seeing the world and the feeling in your heart.

I believe that art should create an emotion. That’s communication. Communication is one of the most difficult things in life. You know that old adage; “a picture is worth a thousand words”. People relate to that. You have to find a way to get through to people and hope they can understand the importance of the image. I feel my images create an emotion that hopefully reaches out to people and encourages them to look differently at their surroundings to fill the soul. The objective here is to get people to see their surroundings in a different way, and not just by taking a quick look but looking deep into what is there and seeing the subject in more than one way.