Bill Owen Artist Statement

Since I was a very young child I’ve been excited, thrilled, by nature. A sudden shower, fog in the morning, a shaft of sunlight through cloud cover, a full moon night, big waves at the beach, the solitary tree in a field – such sights have brought me joy for as long as I can remember.

I’ve always known that nature is not different than me, that I’m nature and nature is me. I cannot explain this feeling. You might say I’m in a state of meditation, on one level, all the time. I think everyone is, although most people aren’t aware of it. This is why people love being outside in nature. A part of us feels merged into what we are seeing. Great beauty can do that for us. This sense of merging with nature, which brings with it a nice feeling of expansion, is, for me, confirmation enough that nature and me are one and the same. If during these magical moments I’m in nature, however, I find myself thinking my thoughts about this, the good feelings evaporate.

But if I just stay loose and allow the expansion to keep happening and I don’t go to my mind, then I continue to feel great. To me, this is one of the secrets of life: when something wonderful is happening, let it happen, don’t think about it, just let it happen!

Starting in 1985, when I purchased my first medium-format camera and decided I would start taking still photographs during my frequent treks through the woods or at ocean’s edge, I’ve slowly been assembling my own private collection of my favorite tree, ocean, tropics, and Alaska rainforest images. Thank you for letting me share these images with you today.

My criteria for when to take a picture could not be simpler. Everyone has had the experience of turning a street corner on a warm spring day and there, in front of us, stopping us in our tracks, is a tree in glorious full bloom. Or we’ve been climbing some mountain trail and then, for no reason, we turn around and look behind us and are rewarded with a scene of unimaginable beauty. These are the special moments which make life so worth living. Typically, I’ll just stand there a bit soaking in what I see before me. I might notice my thoughts may have stopped. Then comes the joyous realization, “Omigod, I’m a professional landscape photographer and I’ve got my cameras with me!”

For many years I’ve realized I don’t actually take the picture. Don’t misunderstand me. Yes, I’m the one who pressed the shutter. I almost-but-not-quite disappear for a moment. Something else takes me over, and--I don’t quite know how to express this--the picture happens. The nature scene before me somehow “takes me” instead of the other way around. My job is not to interfere. I’ve watched this miracle enough to know this is the actual process. This also explains why many people respond to my photographs by saying, “I feel like I’m there.” The reason they can be there in this way is because I wasn’t there, or I was fully there and not fully there, both simultaneously. And I know the mind has trouble understanding what I’m saying. Still, this is the truth.

If you would like to visit with me about these photographs or ask me any questions you might have, please call me at 301.455.5344, or send me an email at MrBillOwen@gmail.com. I look forward to talking with you.