Untitled #3
photograph, 12 1/2” X 15” framed. 8” X 10” unframed. edition of 5
Campbell has spent the last 40 years in New Mexico where he lives in the tiny hamlet of Cerrillos, but works in Santa Fe, and enjoys his commute for all the sights of land and sky. Shooting photos daily is his creative outlet from his often high pressure job as a construction contractor. Campbell's construction projects are often large projects, hotels, large apartment complexes and residential. They are jobs that are highly interactive with architects, designers, and their clients while running multiple construction crews for those who have hired his contracting services.
Dave’s joy in photography is that it is a not only a creative outlet, but that all the decisions are his alone. He loves selecting his subject, framing the shots, and printing all of his own work. Campbell chooses daily from his collection of Japanese, Germany, French and American made cameras some a hundred years old for making his daily shots. He never works with studio made shots - all his works are encounters, never set up, just what he SEEs.
This exhibition includes black and white prints, which are offered in a small edition of five prints. Viewers will be struck immediately by the almost etching-like quality of captured light within the contrasting blacks, grays and whites of these entrancing photos and their startlingly intimate subjects. Campbell never puts humans in his sights, only intimate moments; of the found beauty of an object, a juxtaposition of light from a window on the rough barrk of a nearby tree at night, or a shot of terrible beauty. All of Campbell's work dances with the available light – day or night – a profound lyricism frozen in the moment he has chosen.
Artist Statement:
My father gave me my first camera, a brownie, when I was quite young. He insisted that I shoot black and white film in order to learn the basics. 50+ years later I continue to shoot primarily black and white. I primarily use several vintage medium format cameras, including a 1935 Voigtlander and a 1985 Fujica and develop and print my own images. I also shoot some digital images as well, for more instant gratification.
“Having lived in the village of Cerrillos for some years my primary focus is the scenery and life in that area. I present a view of my world as I see it, not necessarily as it exists,” says Dave Campbell about his photographs.
I was born in the midwest at the close of the 50’s and raised on the Mexican border. I have received no formal art instruction although I have been a learning photographer for many years. I have rarely shown my work and am happy to share my passion.
Dave Campbell, 2022
