Blake Shaw - Artist Statement
I have a range of interests in my photography, though I specialize in travel, fine-art, and sports. Whether capturing images of flowers, professional tennis players, or abandoned objects along Route 66, I seek out dramatic color and dynamic composition to evoke positive emotions in the viewer.
While my photographic eye is entirely self-taught, I have studied extensively with the leaders in the world of digital imaging, in order to obtain complete control of my work from the vision to the capture to the print. I also find it inspiring to study art history, in order to put photographic images in a context of artistic expression, instead of being only a technical exercise.
In my photography I try to keep in mind a quotation by the late photographer Edouard Boubat:
Every day we turn on the TV and are smothered with cruelty and I don’t need to add to the suffering. So I only photograph peaceful things--a vase of flowers, the face of a beautiful girl. To me, sometimes, through my flowers or through a peaceful face, I can bring something important into the world.