Justin Stapp: Beauty

Beauty, what is it? I think it can always be argued because of personal opinions and biases. There are few things though that no matter who you are take your breath away and I think anyone will agree that are beautiful. Grandness is usually the key for me, whether it be a huge mountain landscape, vast clear a calm oceans, weather fronts with huge clouds, or a clear view of the stars in the night sky. All things in nature are inspiring and incredibly beautiful to me. I saw some imagery from Ben Canales on G+ a while back and was enthralled with it. Now that I have some equipment that will allow me to do so I am going to start playing with some star photography and this is my first exploration into that.

Time: Justin Stapp

While lots of people say photography is about light, I say there is also another power at play: Time.  Photographic images wouldn't exist without light, but in the same aspect could you say the same about an image's existence in respect to time? I guess it is one of those chicken or the egg moments. The more I think about it though I know time has a huge influence on whatever photograph one may look at. Time within the artist's life, the time it took to make the image, the timing of the moment the image was taken. Anyway you look at it, time had an influence. Photographers have always studied light. What about the study of time, like the image I have made, a construct of time if you will. I tried to compress my bike commute time into one single frame.  If you are intrigued you might enjoy taking a look at Michael Wesely's work and study of time where he takes exposures years at a time.

Justin Stapp: Funky

I think artists sometimes get so caught up in their own medium, and own work that they often at times lose sight of the art community as a whole.  I know for myself my dear friend who does awesome make up, sure he is still learning and might have a long way to go...but who can say they have achieved artist nirvana? I realized after watching him apply makeup for a shoot we were collaborating on just why you should call someone a makeup artist. After we finished the shoot I asked him if he could do something "Funky" for me, he came up with this in about 5 minutes just playing around.  Realization: think of everyone as an artist in the work they do, sure they might not do the same kind of artwork you do, but someone's passion is most probably always art in its own right.

Justin Stapp:Mirrors

Mirrors, they show us the world behind us when we look into them, but what if they could show us the times behind us? How many people would lose themselves in mirrors? Would it just be the vain at that point that look into mirrors because they love seeing themselves, or would it come to include more because they miss things that have passed?  What if you could look into a mirror and see your childhood looking back at you, if you could lose yourself in those moments of your past? The world would be different, definitely different if that was possible...it would be a world of mirrors and glass.