As a youth in North Carolina; I begun my path as an abstract painter and figurative sculptor; motivations grew from my interest of the psychophysical effects of chroma. Photography holds all the intrinsic values of all the other arts; but differers in the fact the it’s the foundation of existence. My creations are the exploration of my inner facilities; in the pursuit of contemporary knowledge expressing “original thoughts”.
“Nothing can exist without the photon, and every aspect is controlled by it’s usage”
Looking back at it now, it seems like a very logical progression from painting to sculpture to photography.
© Neil Craver
How and when did you become interested in photography?
Eons ago we somehow begin this evolutionary track from virtually nothing but water. My endeavor into the idea’s of origins and the simplification of existence; that idea extends into the water being a driving photographic element in my work. I think a lot about origins of thoughts pertaining to living creatures, and how to illustrate that abstract idea. I like the innate power of water to create and destroy in the same wave of energy. It’s only from a human’s point of view that we label each one bad or good; helpful or useless. Our first 9 months of life start floating in our mother’s womb, how strange it is to be floating in a container inside a human body that is also made from water. I ponder even further the intact memories that could travel within water itself, before it started forming a fetal’s organs. Think about the saliva beneath your tongue; it could have flooded a valley of dinosaurs, been the urine of Jesus Christ, or the liquid contents of a dragon fly’s eye.
Is there any artist/photographer who inspired your art?
There are many artists that inspire me, not necessarily to produce the series, but in general.Not really photographers… but other artist Van Gogh, Egon Schiele, Tom Friedman, Andy Goldsworthy etc. I’m very consumed by Van Gogh’s color palette; intrigued by ay Egon Schiele’s compositions of the woman he drew; and very interested in the philosophical conceptual works of Tom Friedman. But for me, more so than any other artist, it’s the experience of observing water.
Why do you work in black and white rather than color?
I still really like some of the color photos, but the brilliant hue of the sea foam green water was what draw me to the environment in the first place. I felt the lack of color transformed and galvanized the photograph into a philosophic statement which was at the forefront of the project. This color has a primeval meaning for me; one of my first memories was that color crayon in the box. As I got older i once returned to my first box of crayons,the other colors were hardly used and the sea foam was just a stomp.
Where is your photography going? What projects would you like to accomplish?
Right now my single drive is to show this underwater nude series to the world and get it published into a book! I’m also working on getting a residence somewhere in the world…. London, Japan, and Berlin. I would like to produce a similar series as a foreign body of water.
Website: www.Omni-Phantasmic.com
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
© Neil Craver
