Ever since I first picked up a camera at the age of sixteen I've felt there's far more to photography than meets the eye.
Although it is a visual medium, the making and the viewing of images are both communication processes that interconnect us on a variety of levels.
It is this deeper participatory aspect that fuels me, and it is my challenge with every photograph I make: are we connecting? Is this particular story fully emerging?
Particularly in portraiture, if we are mindful of these elemental flows in the making of an image, then the subtler, richer aspects of the story we're telling are more likely to emerge in the viewing.
This is when an image is not only effective, but it somehow becomes compelling-- and even magical.
My work is essentially the practical pursuit of this magic.
Nels Israelson