I create unique photographic images of fragments of scenes, working on a border between visual reality and the emotional abstract, exploring pattern, color, form, and texture. Although I work with a small camera, the final pictures are quite large, up to 8 feet by 12 feet, drawing the viewer in.

I often work in a series, such as the one of fragments of a machine, that I shot one summer around a large industrial machine where the peeling paint and rusting metal become studies in form with emotional depth. In a similar fashion, the close-up images of graffiti create abstract patterns of paint and texture, while those of bark and wood loose their specificity and leave an emotional impact. I am delighted by strong colors, such as those in the images of stamens, where close-ups are transformed digitally to attain wildly different vibrant color patterns. In several series, I have investigated images of reflections in the glass windows of buildings, distortions of the world, which I have then further explored through brilliant solarizations in color and black and white.

The computer is not only my digital darkroom but also my lens to create new realities for the viewer.

Wally Gilbert