Beckett Gladney

I've been a working illustrator for over 25 years now. This appallingly large number of years means that I've worked on a lot of very different types of projects, for many different companies in lots of different mediums in wild ongoing attempts to keep the bills paid. I've always loved photography but it wasn't until recently that I discovered that I really loved taking photographs as complete and finished images in their own right, rather than as a means to an end like reference for drawing.

I'm not heavily into the technical end of photography, so I'm always trying to learn more. I think that seeing the idea for an image and then wildly attempting to capture it is what I've been doing more than any deliberate planning and careful technical execution.

Having rambunctious twin boys has severely limited my time for things like drawing and painting these days, and photography has stepped in as a medium and provided a much faster way of creating art. Photography helps me capture fleeting moments; it also lets me step outside of myself and into that pleasant 'creative zone' where I can just see things in shapes, light and dark, color and composition without allowing everyday life to intrude. It's a sanity check in a busy life, while still being intimately connected to it; life provides an infinite number of subjects to photograph in new and interesting ways.

Portfolio

Portraits

Photo Journalism

Projects

Landscapes

Stock Photography

Artist's Statement

I'm attracted to ideas and images that share something more than the everyday and expected. I like the idea that there are deep layers of richness in the world, most of which we never slow down enough to even see, much less savor. I want to reach into those hidden layers and draw them out into places where we can be surprised and experience a flutter of secret recognition.

I like to keep my process simple. I try to slow down first, to let go of myself and my everyday concerns, and let myself really look with an open mind. When I see something that grabs me, then I look for possible composition and light and dark values and color and so on, then I take the image. Later I may do some post processing on some of them in order to add clarity or to emphasize the part of the image that attracted my eye in the first place.

I hope these images I'm sharing here manage to convey a bit of the magic in these people and places.

Favorite Photos (of mine)

Utata Member Page for Beckett Gladney