ARTIST BIO:

Christopher Wright is a contemporary artist from the United States whose medium is Fine Art Photography. His work is done mostly at night and focuses on our connections within the balance of light & darkness.

 

Christopher lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, and his photography can be found in the Permanent Art Collection of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, along with private collections both in the United States, and in several countries abroad.

 

 

 

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I've always loved how light interacts with darkness, particularly within the night sky. When I was 8 years old I began taking pictures, and as I grew into a young adult I found myself transitioning to shooting during lower light times of the day. The basis of my work, which focuses on our connections to the balance between light & darkness, originates from my experiences as a child practicing martial arts, where our talisman was the Yin Yang, a symbol of harmony through a balance between the two opposing colors black & white, or darkness & light.

 

I'm drawn to waterscapes, landscapes, and celestial bodies, with my photographs mostly devoid of people within the frame, because of the symbolism it represents of a primal recognition of our connection to this planet that we live on, who we are in relation to this planet, and where we are, and our planet is, within the enormity of the universe.

 

Often times I find there is a lot directly around us that we can't initially see which can be brought out through a balancing of darkness and light. There's a whole other amazing world and life happening all around us which we're directly connected to, the light within darkness, it just takes a little adjustment of focus, and this is what I hope to express in my work.

 

CREATIVE PROCESS:

Along with Fine Art Photography I also have a history in charcoal drawing, and I found early on that the two mediums, to me, have a distinct similarity which I then started utilizing when using the various fine art photography tools with my work. In my mind, darkness & light are essentially the same in both mediums, and so there's a crossover in technique with my process. To me, the initial photograph could be thought of, a bit, as more like a defined pencil sketch that I might draw as an outline prior to first drawing a full charcoal drawing. The remaining percent of my work is done primarily by my using the darkroom technique of "Dodging & Burning", or letting more available light in or creating darkness, and I do it in a very similar manner as to how I draw in charcoal. The overall idea with my process is for me to maximize the depth of range, and to create a scene within the frame of the initial photograph that conveys both what I see & what I feel, bringing the photograph to life. In short, I essentially create my photographs primarily by working with darkness & light.

 

~Christopher Wright - 2023