William Vanscoy

In the late sixties inspired by images of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand and W. Eugene Smith I walked the streets with a Lieca rangefinder searching for the decisive moment that was their trademark. A few years later I changed to Large Format View Cameras and embraced man made and natural landscape attempting to emulate artists like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

During these beginning years regardless of equipment or vision I found the relationship to a subject and the spontaneous connection between what I see and feel as the true pleasure I sought in photography. So being young and with plenty of time to spare I naturally dedicated myself to as much of this pleasure as possible.

After years of exploring my own vision I decided to become a professional and enrolled at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara California. After graduating I moved to Los Angeles and opened a commercial studio where for twenty-five years I made photographs primarily of products and people. Professional photography had its rewards but I still felt the need to explore my own work and spent my free time photographing in the American Southwest and Europe. In 2002 I made my final commercial image closed my studio and moved to Oregon.

From the beginning making images was more about finding my way and discovering myself and though I’ve managed to gain appreciable control over the technical discipline of photography I prefer to keep that part of the process fairly simple. For me my pleasure still lies in spontaneity and that magical connection between my eyes, heart and mind.

Over the last four decades my equipment as well basic artistic motivations have constantly evolved. I still photograph with traditional cameras and film but now print on fine art papers using a digital process. My work displayed here represents a very small part of my own intimate journey and experiences. I hope to convey at least some of those feelings to you with my visions represented in this image.