Don McKenna
In Missouri: Photographs
Initially, my interest in a potential subject is more visceral and I follow my instincts to a conclusion. Some reoccurring motifs explored in my photography are metaphor, time and the human spirit. Objects I choose to photograph in that exploration
are common, rural and urban spaces, vernacular architecture, and their relationships with the environments in which they exist. With few exceptions, and for very practical reasons, most of my work is created in the Midwest very close to home. This group of images was photographed in Missouri exclusively. However, the subjects, I choose to illustrate my exploration with, are not necessarily unique to any one geographic area but are the elemental subjects of human interest found all around.
With perceptive observation and imagination, successful photographs can become more than just evidence of what was in front of the camera. Through the universal language of photography and the poetry of visual organization the resulting images transcend literal representation and become more about personal experiences, unrecorded history, and metaphor. For the most part I would not expect nor want an image to mean the same to any two people except in the broadest terms. It is that very individuality, influenced by social and cultural backgrounds, 
which shape and define one's perception of a photograph that gives it life and allows it to become one's own.
I seek to convey the feeling of human presence through the absence of humans being present. For some time now I have found photographs without people dominating the composition seem to hold my interest longer. I find such images more abstract and open to conjecture. Such images allow more freedom to associate one's personal experiences, memories and interpretations when individuals do not already occupy an image. The presence of people, and all they represent can influence, limit or bias one's response both emotionally and intellectually. That being said, a person in a photograph does not make it a bad thing or a good thing - just a different thing. I use the evidence of human occupation that is left behind to suggest that presence and the nature of it - good, bad or indifferent… past, present or future.
Martin Morehouse
Snug Sensation
