The Struggle Between the Inner Artist and Inner Engineer

Fading Light in the Franklin Parker Preserve New Jersey Pinelands by Richard Lewis

Fading Winter Light by Richard Lewis 2017

I love going out on New Year’s Day to hike to get a first photo of the year. This year the first photograph of 2017 was made on January 8. Why? Because I’ve been feverishly preparing for a solo exhibition of my New Jersey Pine Barrens photography showcasing the 10,000 acre Franklin Parker Preserve that opens January 20. You can read more about this exhibition by clicking the link below. Consider yourself invited to the opening!


Richard Lewis’ Franklin Parker Preserve Photography Exhibition


To the right is the actual invitation. 

Exhibiting your work is time consuming. Don’t get me wrong, I love exhibiting, it is just that the preparation photographic prints is the least creative part of photography. After planning, setting up, shooting and editing a photograph, the creative part is pretty much over. Once the final image file is saved, the process becomes mechanical. Creating files for web and printing, calibrating monitors and loading printer profiles means my inner artist needs to step back and let my inner engineer take over for a while.

For the last few weeks that pesky inner engineer has been ruling the roost as I’ve been preparing and printing photographs. That ended for a while on a Sunday afternoon. It was very cold, it was windy and it had just snowed, but the artist in me had enough. I bundled up and headed for the Franklin Parker Preserve to remind myself why I’m doing all of this work.

Hiking in frigid weather can be a challenge, but creating is even harder. However, I let my far too-restrained lately artist out to wander around and this is the result. After the sun set and I was making my way back to the car it became really cold. It still felt good that some balance had been restored.

Art is a balance of creativity and mechanics. While mechanics ensures what is in your soul makes it to the medium you want to express it on, creativity will always be the ultimate driver that moves your art forward.

Enjoy