Lanny Webb Lanny Webb
I always have had a fascination, if not an obsession, with light and how it affects the spirit of a subject. Our perception of a subject is determined by its lighting, and yet we frequently are not aware of this ever present but subtle force. The essence of any subject can change poetically, dramatically, or mystically depending on the quality of light. Strong sunlight can have an oppressive, suffocatingly still heat or be viewed as a wash of bright purifying light. The rapidly changing light of a late afternoon summer storm often creates a simultaneous contrast of colors and moods, for example, splendor and gloom. The mystery of a silver moon can cast a quiet peace or create a crisp tension. A special magic can be felt during a dawn or dusk full of transient light. During these times there is a mixture of calm and constant slow change like the movement of the hand on a clock. You can't see it move, but every minute is new.
The representation of peaceful settings and how light in its extremes can change the perception of each situation are at the heart of my work. Some material object usually is the center of focus, but in reality, however, the obvious subject is subordinate in importance to the mood I am striving to convey through the use of light. Normal lighting situations are exaggerated, sometimes even reversed from day to night.
All my images, whether traditional or digital, try to depict a specific mood, or the character, of a subject or place. What I feel important in the subject, however, is usually very subtle. For this feeling, or character, to be apparent, I must focus on its "essences" by deleting or adding information. In most instances, it is what I take away, more than what I add, that improves the image. The images, then, are not just attempts to faithfully record reality in the form of a photograph. They try to portray, in a photographic medium, an image which in reality never existed, but, through numerous manipulations, more clearly conveys the mood or character that attracted my attention to the subject initially.
There is an inherent quality of truth, or reality, a photograph has that a drawing or painting, regardless how tightly rendered it is, never has. People will accept almost anything as reality if it is a photograph, because they believe that "photographs don't lie." My approach, therefore, is for the computer to be mostly transparent or invisible. I try to create illusions that stay just inside the edge of this photographic truth, images difficult or impossible for film to record, or creations of what would result from a photographically utopian world where everything is where you want it and the lighting is always just right. My images were never real, but hopefully still contain enough of a photographic essence that the viewer will readily accept them as believable.
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