David Schroeder

I'm basically a jock and an artist. As a child, my life plan was to play professional baseball and football, but in those dark ages, athletes didn't earn much money, so I concluded that I'd have to earn my living as an artist. Unfortunately, reality intruded on my fantasies and I ended up working as a clinical psychologist with artistic and athletic hobbies. As an artist, I've dabbled in painting, singing, acting, writing, and most recently, photography. I bought my first serious camera in the 1970's in order to create slide shows of the work my clients were doing in Art Therapy. (I was attempting to merge my many interests with the necessity of earning a living.) While putting together these shows, I was seduced into thinking that photography was an easy way to produce artistic images. Forty years later I'm still struggling with this supposedly "easy" medium. As a photographer, I'm drawn to clear, clean, sharp images with a minimun of manipulation beyond standard processing procedures. Defining my style and personal approach has been a source of amusement and befuddlement over the years. Since I tend to take pictures of everything from people to places to things, as well as plants and animals, I redefine myself every couple of years. Most recently, I've been trying on the label of Travel Photographer, which, to me, means that when I travel, I take pictures, which I hope, best convey the feeling of the culture I'm in. However, in recent years, I've also been spending a lot of time shooting Nudes in the Landscape, which combines two other predominant interests - naked women and nature. Beyond this revolving door of definitions, I'm definitely predisposed to create images which express story, emotion, humor or movement. I tend to spend less time focused on the contemplation of the thing itself, which is often the case with "fine art" photography. But enough of what I think (artists should never be allowed to talk about their art - their job is to show you), it's up to you to decide.