About the photographer

Photography is the practice of the moment, the practice of now. When I have a camera in hand, time disappears and I constantly search what is around me. To be present, to immerse myself in the moment, that is photography. I don’t judge. I look. I see. I capture with clarity.

From that practice comes some amazing photos, fractions of seconds of the now captured for others to share, tiny little anchors to what was, now lost to the past, static examples of the dynamic flow of life. What a wonderful gift to be present, not lost in the past or the future. Present. Dynamic. Alive. In the moment. That is photography for me.

An aunt gave me a camera and four rolls of film when I was ten. I did not much like the gift, but a few weeks later, when snow covered our ranch in the Texas Hill Country, I grabbed the camera. Snow in Texas is quite rare event and I loved the hush, the softness, the peace it brought.

That day began my life-long love affair with photography. Though those first photographs were not very good, I found something mystical about the process. It enamors me to this day.

I discover in photography the mystical and sublime in the everyday and ordinary. Great photographs are never about the equipment. Great photographs come from being consciously aware of the present, seizing the moment, setting aside perception in order to see what is, to see clearly.

I hope you enjoy your time here and you find, somewhere in my work, a bit of that mystery I find every time I am behind the camera.

John Ater – June 2009