Randy Sweatt

I was 12 years old when my grandparents gave me my first camera; a Kodak 126 instamatic. I did not know it at the time, but that simple gift would spark the beginning of a life-long passion in the field of photography. Not long afterwards, for Christmas, Mom and Dad gave me a small darkroom kit so I could process and print my own black and white film. I have been obsessed with the magical process of photography ever since. The idea of pointing a camera in any direction and capturing whatever is in front of the lens - freezing that moment in time - is almost a religious experience for me.
In 1978, my interest in photography led me to a 10 year stint as a photographer in the US Air Force. In 1998 I decided to open my own photography business here in Henry County, focusing on portraits and weddings.

When digital photography first started to find its way into the creative photographic process in the mid- 90’s, I was very much against it. As a matter of fact, I cancelled a subscription to a photographic publication because I felt that their articles on this new medium were going to aid in the corruption of the pure art form I so loved.

Jumping ahead several thousand rolls of film, in December of 2001 I finally succumbed to “progress”, purchased a digital camera, and as a result my interest in photography as an art form was renewed.
I believe the process of digital photography, itself, does not yield any more pleasing photographs than my first 126 instamatic camera did. What it does provide for the photographic artist, however, is an unlimited avenue of expression.
The great pictorial photographer, Ansel Adams, in the 1981 introduction to his book “The Negative”, said;

“I eagerly await the new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them”

Ansel Adams died in 1984. I often wonder what his digital photographs would have looked like.

I still shoot film, mostly black and white film in large format cameras. I still enjoy getting into the darkroom and watching a photographic image slowly appear on the paper in the developer tray, but the satisfaction I have gained from the expressive capabilities of the digital medium has born in me a new love for the act of pushing the shutter button. Digital photography has made it easier for the artist to convey what he or she wants the observer to see and feel when looking at their photographs. And to the artist, that has always been the most important, and most difficult step in the process.