My main focus in photography is the creation of visual art. Through almost 15 years of practice I have learned to use the camera to make the image I have in mind (“You don’t take a photograph, you make it” Ansel Adams said.)  My photographs are abstractions, mostly figurative, that hint rather than state. Color plays a strong role in them. Their aim is purely aesthetic, but each one of them “says something” which is left to the viewer’s imagination. They are shot in the streets and parks of New York and in my travels abroad. The dreamy, painterly effect is achieved through camera settings (that’s why I don’t use mobile phone cameras) and with simple editing (cropping, fixing light and color, etc.) Experience has taught me what has the makings of a good, interesting visual image. Sometimes I am wrong, and no matter what I do with the photo I have shot, it is not that elusive masterpiece photographers are constantly hunting. It does not match what I saw in my imagination before I clicked. At other times there is the immense satisfaction of producing an image that “says” exactly what I had in mind. Sometimes, before I leave the house, I have a vague idea of what I want to shoot, sometimes a chance encounter with a scene or person gives rise to the idea.
It is difficult to say what influences have affected my work. Surely my frequent visits to galleries and museums have “educated” my eye, but also perhaps my background in teaching philosophy for many years is part of the makeup of the eye and the mind of the person behind my camera. Into this mix I will add that I am Armenian, born and brought up in Lebanon, but have resided most of my life in New York. My work has been exhibited in a solo show in CJOne Gallery in 2020 in New York, and in group shows in several others.

http://www.instagram.com/sourenteghrarian