Featured Artist Tina Davidson

Artist Tina Davidson presents her “Altered States” collection of photographic images with hidden details waiting to be discovered. See more of her work by visiting her website.

 

 

In 1995, while stationed on a military exercise in Germany, my new public affairs section chief handed me a camera and several rolls of black and white film, and told me to go play. I walked down to the little town, found a beautiful graveyard, and started taking pictures. Once the film was developed and I saw the pictures, I was mesmerized. I knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

 

 

I am in my absolute happiest place when I’m behind the camera. My goal is to capture the beauty, peculiarities, details and the awe that I see and feel when I look through the lens.

 

 

In 2004, after a lifelong passion with architecture, I opened a studio as an architectural photographer. Over the next eleven years, I was hired by developers and architects from New York City to Washington, DC, to take photos of their magnificent pieces of work. I found joy in the details of the buildings I was hired to photograph, be it the gargoyles and mosaic finishes of the iconic Woolworth Building in New York City or the arcade of contiguous arches of the IRS building in Washington, DC.

 

 

In between assignments, I traveled five of the world’s continents capturing images. They would become the foundation for my next photographic series. I was looking for unique and beautiful oddities, colors and textures—anything that made my heart sing!

 

 

Sadly, in 2015, I put my camera down and took a two-year break. The artist in me needed something more. I needed to create my own artwork instead of just taking pictures of other people’s work.

 

 

During the stressful time of moving across country in 2017, I found that I needed a creative break from the packing, organizing and preparations of moving.

 

 

The pictures I had taken during my travels started calling me. I had thousands and thousands of images taken over the years, and thought it would be fun to reduce the stress by playing with some of them.

 

 

I thought, “I’m going to twist, turn, mirror, color or do anything I feel like to this picture!” All of a sudden, the picture I started with—the picture that represented “Reality”—took on a life of its own and it’s “Altered State” emerged! I was in awe of this new non-reality that had been created. It was one that had been there all along, but hiding in the shadows, waiting to be seen. My heart started to sing again! I couldn’t stop. Every time I looked at a picture, I would wonder what hidden life it held waiting for me to discover.

 

 

I ask that same question with wonderment when it comes to my altered states collection called “Do You See What I See??” Many times, I leave in a detail that was present in the original image. Other times, something entirely new finds me and begs to be set free.

 

 

When I create, I find myself in the flow—in itself an Altered State. I have no way of knowing what I did or how I ended up with what emerged. Each piece is unique and cannot be duplicated even by my own hand.

As you look at my work, I’m curious—what do you see??

 

Artist Tina Davidson invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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