Inspiration

After taking my first darkroom class and discovering my passion for photography, one of the first things I did was buy a book, then another one, and another………………………….. I wanted to learn everything I could and this seemed like the best place to start.

I found that besides useful information, what these books gave me was inspiration. This was especially true after I started hand-coloring. I probably have every book ever written on the subject. Most of these books, though written by one or two photographers, have sections where they featured the work of other hand-color artists. This was usually my favorite part.

I purchased most of these books before “surfing the net” was a common phrase. Soon after my first dialup modem was installed I started searching for the websites of these and other artists. I discovered that many of them were teaching, had books out, a few were on the festival circuit and all of them seemed to have a steady career doing what they loved.

I soon realized that in addition to inspiration, the work of these photographers gave me hope. Hope that making art your full time pursuit (I can’t really call it a job) was possible.

Over the years, with the help of the internet, I added more photographers to my list of "favorites". I thought I would share some of these websites with you.

Most of these artists hand-color their photographs and many of them work with infrared images, but what they all have in common is that their work and their careers greatly influenced and motivated me. I hope they can do the same for you.

So in no particular order here a few of my favorites:

Jill Enfield

Thea Schrack

William Vanscoy

Elizabeth Opalenik

Brigitte Carnochan

Paul Kozal

Kathleen Carr

I would love to hear about artists that influenced, inspired and motivated you!