User:Lahyder

Happy/L.A. Hyder - Fine Artist in Color Photography - http://www.lahyderphotography.com

Asked to define what I do in a few words, “I photograph the ordinary as the extraordinary” sprang full blown from my mouth.

These words fit perfectly with my images and my desire to engage viewers, via photographs of natural and architectural detail, in seeing with a different eye.

I am caught by the sun's journey throughout the day, the changes its shadows produce, drawing you in or keeping you out, and the patterns leading your eye in one direction or another. And I am challenged in bringing what catches my eye to life on the page to engage you, the viewer.

My photographs, most importantly to me, speak of possibility through the mystery and beauty of the natural and the manmade. In this day and age, the possibility of a world in harmony and the energy to make change are essential to waking each day. I continue my work with the belief that dreaming begets possibility begets reality and my images contribute to dreaming a world of harmony, i.e., where civil and social justice abound.

Does that sound pretentious and/or pollyanna-ish? ...photographs focusing on beauty having a political context? As an out lesbian of Arab descent, as an activist from the working class, as one who came of age and came to California from Massachusetts in the late 60s and who purchased her first camera within a few months of landing in San Francisco, as a feminist in her late 50s, and as a Taurus with a Scorpio moon, my life experiences support the belief there are many ways to make revolution.

Thus I come to trust my photographs fill hearts with calm and joy, fill minds with space to think, fill eyes with much to look at, and fill our days with new ways of looking at the world. Thank you for letting me share my vision with you. I trust you will enjoy the journey and look forward to my photographs gracing your walls.

Photographic bio

I am a self-taught photographer and purchased my first real camera (a Nikkormatt with a 105 mm lens) in 1969 shortly after moving to San Francisco from Worcester, Massachusetts. A few years later, when that camera was stolen, I was gifted a Hasselblad with a 150 mm lens, which I love and use to this day. For those who aren't familiar with it, the Hasselblad is a medium format camera with a 2 1/4 square inch negative. The film has 12 shots on a roll. There is no light meter in the camera, so I have a hand held meter.

It was thrilling to have a 35mm camera after much frustration trying to do "artsy" photos with an Instamatic. Emulating the photographers I saw in the 50s and 60s pictorial magazines made me very hard on myself and extremely selective with the images I chose to print. I learned to work in a darkroom, as we all did then, years later realizing I could have hired someone to make the crisp prints I like so much.

After twenty years photographing exclusively in black & white, I stopped for a few years. I did, however, continue to participate in a photography group with other women photographers, all working in differing styles. At one of our holiday gatherings, I received an Ansco plastic panoramic camera, which led to my "rebirth" as a photographer. I purchased a second one and carried both, one with color film and one with b&w. It brought the joy back to the act of photographing...along with a mischievous feeling as a professional photographer working seriously with my plastic cameras.

In 1994 I traveled to the South West for the first time, bringing the Hasselblad and color film with me. I felt it was necessary for what I expected and found to be the hugeness and boldness of the landscape. At the Acoma Pueblo I stepped back into my full excitement and experience of being a photographer, which for me lies in the feeling of looking through the lens and having all else drop away. I am rarely disappointed by these images.

In the ensuing years, my body of work has grown through traveling and making the time to photograph while at home.

How I Work

I have dubbed my images "found photographs" because of the way I work, which began with my very first roll of film in my newly adopted San Francisco. I walk in the world, camera in hand, with anticipation and expectation. When something catches my eye and imagination, I lift my camera and focus in order to see if it is as interesting within the frame as it is in its entirety. If yes, then I focus my attention on the details -- how the light falls, how the light affects texture and form, and how well does this all fit into a square format.

As does a painter on her canvas, I frame my negative in a way that enables you to travel throughout the photograph while staying involved with the image (and not sending you off the page). My smallest movement right or left, backward or forward, changes the final image, bringing another branch of a tree, another building's bricks or part of an arch, for example, to bear on the whole. I have been known to spend much time in gentle movement to find what I want in order to capture what I feel makes a dynamic image. I have also been known to walk away because I cannot bring what I first felt and saw into the frame.

Also, my photographs are printed full-frame; i.e., all of what is on the negative is printed.

Most often in my walks, I take one photograph of any given subject. When I am concentrating on a specific place, such as with the New York City public library, I spend time in and around the building - still often taking only one photograph each time something catches my eye and imagination.

I've instinctively worked this way since I began photographing and it is how I expect I'll work until I can't carry my camera. It is an exciting journey, one I hope you'll enjoy as you travel through my gallery.