BACKGROUND:

I am a retired physician and scientist who has been photographing with intent since I was a young boy. My grandfather, Peter Koch, was a legendary naturalist, film maker, and photographer of Far West Texas from the 1940s through the 70s, and my favorite reward every summer vacation was the opportunity to spend time with him in the field with a Leica rangefinder camera and one roll of Kodachrome with 36 exposures.

My intent was clear: Impress my grandfather who was slow to praise!

We would awake well before twilight, he would help me hurry through a bowl of bran flakes and a glass of orange juice, then we would climb into his 1965 white, 2-door, Plymouth and begin the long drive to The Park. I don't recall napping, but there was little conversation and certainly no small talk. I learned to be very comfortable with silence. When we arrived, usually on the upper Tornillo Creek drainage, I would be told the proper
f-stop and shutter speed; it was assumed I remembered, from our excursion last year, how to operate the camera and hold it steady. Camera in hand, it was now my intent to find an interesting subject and experiment with where to stand, before taking a photograph that I intended to be beautiful.

I don't recall his critique. The film would go in the mail to Rochester, NY before we left Alpine, but he would review and forward the yellow box along with everything we might have left behind when returning home to Houston.

Those times have passed, and my equipment has grown along with the evolution of the mechanics of photography. No loading of plates with 5x7 film. No limited rolls of 35mm film, 36 shots per roll—or worse, only 24 shots!  Such concepts as manipulating with precise control the exposure and push-pull processing have been simplified and automated. LightRoom can accomplish what the dark room could never aspire to. There are no toxic chemicals to mix and hold at a steady temperature or printing extra copies once a combination of exposure, chemical activity, and temperature had achieved a perfectly balanced image. What has remained of those challenges, as we move into the digital age, has been my intent to create beautiful images.    

MY MUSE

Art and Beauty are indivisibly bound together; however, each term is defined by an individual. What is found to be artistic will have layers of beauty and what is felt to be beautiful will also be artistic. 'Intention' can then be said to be the use of 'art' to explore 'beauty.' Whether or not the artist’s intention' must be known by the viewer is a matter of debate. Some would say that the viewer’s interpretation of a work's meaning matters more than the artist's intent. Of course, it is obvious that not all Art is about expressing 'beauty' and sometimes what is impactful is what is uncomfortable or discordant. I don't seek out discordant images, but they do sometimes impose themselves on me.

I am always excited by another opportunity to photograph wild and natural places and to express my reaction to the outdoors. I find my greatest strengths lie in exploring the relationship between a natural subject which is juxtaposed against a background that could be interesting in its own right. The innate beauty in the natural forms and topography of our world, enveloped by atmosphere and greenery, provides great inspiration. I enjoy the challenges that these natural scenes pose as I try to impose order and meaning on a disordered environment. Changing my point of view can also yield exciting prints. Ansel Adams famously had a platform atop his station wagon to give him a higher elevation and different point of view. I like pushing the camera close to the earth for a different perspective.

For inspiration, I especially look to the photographic work of Eliot Porter, Jim Bones, and David Muench, all masters of composition and dark room 'post processing.' How I longed for the skill and equipment to achieve the dye transfer printing method, the pinnacle of color dark room processes, which were produced by these masters!

When exploring fine art museums, I gravitate towards Landscape Paintings, especially those of the Dutch Golden Age and Hudson River School. The work of Albert Bierstadt offers many inspiring images, and examining his works for compositional techniques is always a joy.

MY EDUCATION

I am self-taught but highly experienced with 60+ years of practice behind the camera aspiring to take pretty pictures. As a young photographer, I was raised on S-curves and the Rule-Of-Thirds. But those rules slowly faded into hinted guidelines as I learned to follow my instincts: It felt good when I found the right subject-background relationship and those photos were inevitably my favorite, even if they had no s-curve.

Film wasn't "free" in the 80s, unlike the virtually unlimited storage with today's cameras and SD cards. But in those days, it was easy to take advantage of local promotions, though, which made shooting two or three rolls of film a day more affordable. I would shoot multiple compositions of the same subject and then carefully review the resulting prints and choose the best. Winnowing the pile of prints down to a few dozen, I would pass these out to various non-photographer friend reviewers. "Pick your favorite six," I would ask. I can think of no better way to get critical review.

The greatest improvement in my 'hit rate' has come with the expansion of my 'artistic armamentarium.' Today, I tend to prioritize diagonals and perpendiculars, expanding the geometric rules I can utilize. I better understand the harmonies between colors, the relationships between forms, and the role of contrast and luminosity, and I better appreciate the value that a deliberate choice of aspect ratio can make on a photo. As I work with these elements in post-processing they became more important elements in my fieldwork. For example, knowing that gold and blue are direct compliments can help me focus with more selective intent. Changing my electronic viewfinder to restrict the image to a 16:9 format helps me to compose better with that format and can give a different apparent perspective.

My hope is that my work expands the variety of views associated with the Big Bend region. Travel magazines, and even many coffee-table books, focus on a handful of money shots: Casa Grande, The Window, South Rim, Santa Helena, Hot Springs Canyon and Sierra del Carmen, and the Balanced Rock in Grapevine Hills, of course. There are others but these trophy shots are only one side of Big Bend.

Artist Resume

My earliest photographic experiences were at the side of my grandfather hiking across the Tornillo Flats. From this experience I nurtured my photographic abilities and began to enjoy success in the late 1980s. I began actively developing a professional portfolio in the mid-1980s and by about 1990, I had had several solo exhibitions, including the O'Kane Gallery at the University of Houston (October 1989) and the Big Bend Museum at Sul Ross in Alpine, the heart of my soul.

In 1989 we added twins to our young family of three compelling me to refocus my attention on family and career. Camping with one two-year-old was fun and we managed to hit the trails, but two newborns and a two-year old changed the balance. That and being a practicing neonatologist, taking care of sick infants in various Neonatal Intensive Care Units very often filled my time. The long hours working nights in the darkroom came to an end. This was in the pre-digital age of photography. It would be some years before the digital cameras outperformed analog media and the birth of post-processing software like Photoshop.

Although I have had no public expositions since those dates, I have remained active in my photographic avocation and published several Coffee Table albums, for private circulation, of my work.

Other Experience

I am a board-certified Pediatrician and Neonatologist. I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry at Rice University and my medical education at Baylor College of Medicine. Upon completing my Neonatology fellowship, I was invited to join the Baylor faculty working in the neonatal intensive care units that we covered. In addition to direct patient care, I had large teaching responsibilities both didactic in the classroom and empiric on bedside, patient rounds. I was active for many years in the Boy Scouts of America and the Houston Outdoor Nature Club.