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Arts & Entertainment

Motion, Mystery and Texture: The Works of Bill Prosser

McLean Project for the Arts Exhibits Work of McLean Photographer

“The images in this exhibition were made in Northern Virginia, most in the McLean area. Rather than sweeping landscapes, they are “extracts” intended to make you ask: What is this? Where was it taken? I like to make very graphic images, occasionally with a sense of motion.” – Bill Prosser, artist’s statement.

The McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is currently featuring the works of McLean photographer Bill Prosser in the Atrium Gallery.  In the exhibit, “Unseen Extracts,” Prosser uses black and white images to make the ordinary extraordinary. He focuses on a reflection in a tide pool, a small window in a church, a leaf. The swirls and shapes, the gentle cascades of water create both a calmness and excitement in the viewer.

Prosser shared with Patch his foray into photography and his process as an artist:

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McLean Patch: What was your career before becoming a photographer?

Bill Prosser: I’m an industrial engineer, but actually I’m a policy wonk…I worked for the federal government…first for the space program in the ‘60’s…and then I worked in the anti-poverty area for the next twenty-five years…the Department of Health and Human Services.

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MP: When did you start photography?

BP:  I wanted to do something artistic, and I tried painting…but I didn’t have the skill nor did I want to work on the skill…I thought I’d try photography and I did take classes here at the McLean Community Center, in the mid-to late 70’s…When I retired, my office wanted to give me something…I got Photoshop 3.0 in 1995…that’s when I started going from the darkroom to the digital darkroom but I didn’t buy a digital camera until 2000.

MP: How many cameras do you have?

BP: Three…For serious work I use a single lens reflexive Canon – Rebel. The one I actually take most pictures with is…an advanced point and shoot…Canon.

MP: Are any of your pictures in the exhibit manipulated?

BP: Not really...some dodging and burning – the light too bright...Sometimes I move the camera – panning…zooming.

MP: Were they any photographers who influenced your work or inspired you?

BP: Joe Miller…in Gainesville…he had been a student of Freeman Patterson, a very well-known Canadian photographer, and he would teach a lot of workshops, primarily through the Northern Virginia Photographic Society, on composition or what we call visual design…I went to a workshop of his [Freeman Patterson].

MP: Is all your work in black and white?

BP:  I’ve always considered myself more of a color person…two-thirds of my work is color…I have a portfolio in black and white and almost identical one in color.

MP: How do you choose your subjects?

BP: Someone once said to me, “If you can’t take a picture where you live, then why would you expect to take a picture of Baghdad?” I decided my project was going to be: I want to see what I can capture in McLean…I have a good eye, I see things…I like the curves… the geometry…Curves and circles are more powerful than triangles and rectangles… Something hits me. It registers that there’s a good picture here.

Unseen Extracts, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, April 14 – June 4, 2011.

             

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