November 2009 in the open gallery
Robert Moll "Kaleidoscope"

After more than 40 years as a commercial photographer shooting magazine photography first in New York and then in New England, I find myself looking beyond the everyday appearance of things in an effort to discover beauty in unusual or unexpected places.

As an advertising photographer, I have photographed all manner of objects and people in order to present their most appealing and attractive look as saleable objects, but always to show things exactly as they are – minus the inevitable blemishes and imperfections, irrespective of their artistic qualities.

However, photography is – first and always – an art form. A photograph should present the view point of the artist’s world so that his or her audience might find in it their own unique understanding and perspective. We are all moved by very different images.

KALEIDOSCOPE is one of my techniques used to alter reality – to reduce subject matter to pure design. Without artistic input, a photograph is merely representational. KALEIDOSCOPE is my way of bypassing reality and moving to another level – that of design and abstracton. Some of these images are totally recognizable, some are not, and some become, I think, quite mystical. They have all been manipulated away from simple representation.

I am a graduate of UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. I am a member of the faculty of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA., and I also teach classes in digital photography in the Community Education division of Chelmsford High School. You can see more of my work (as well as the work of my wife and other family members) at www.4perspectives.com. My email address is robert@4perspectives.com.

The photographs here are digital, printed on archival art papers using archival inks. For those of you interested in such things, the camera used is a Nikon CoolPix 8800. a so-called “point and shoot” camera. But “point and shoot” will not lift you out of the ordinary. “Point and Think – then Shoot” is a better starting point. Thought is seminal. The tools are incidental.

My thanks to Adobe Photoshop for providing tools to reshape reality.

Robert Moll
978-256-1679

Also on exhibit this month are the watercolors of George Rainville in the meeting room gallery