Michal Berger


	Michal Berger Chestnet Hill, Maine
		Listen to this artist. (AU 80K)

I suppose that I've always had a desire to express the obscure, the implicit, and even the imaginary. Using many of the techniques described in photographic books and magazines, I tried to bring forth the "spirit" of the image and not let the camera dictate a literal rendering. I printed on Portriga Matte paper. I toned my prints. I experimented with soft focus lenses (never Vaseline). I moved the camera during the expose to subdue the harsh edge of reality. Many of the techniques were highly experimental, and unfortunately many photo excursions resulted in disappointing images. However the computer allows me to more readily bring the spirit from my travels and photographs to realize my vision.

I love the bravado and boldness of Impressionism. Because the sharp edge of reality of the impressionist paintings is often obscured, the suggestive begins to dominate the definitive, and the viewer is pulled into the picture and forced to fill in the other details. Many of these other details aren't even visual; our other senses make the image come to life as a multisensual experience. Not merely a factual recording, the best impressionist images evoke feelings.

I am fascinated with the intersection of art and technology; how technology both enables and encumbers new visions and new ways of perceiving the world around us. I have discovered the computer has changed the way I take photographs, since I can previsualize the final digital painting. Now my original photographs are like sketches, which I use as guides and suggestions when I paint.

I also feel a great kinship with the Impressionist painters of the last century, with their excitement as new technology radically changed their aesthetic. The Impressionist painters took advantage of the new technologies of the late 1800's -- new brushes, new pigments -- and discovered new ways to interpret what they saw. I see us, 100 years later, at the same point, but working with electronic color to produce new visions of the world around us. I use digital technology to go beyond the camera lens, revealing the ordinary images from our everyday life as really extraordinary events.