Peter J. Crowley

Fine Art Photographer

Spring Colors and Sky Columbia Ct

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May 4th 2013 Columbia Green 006

Like an Impressionist view/painting the the trees pop with the color of new life yet as vivid as Autumn dappled color as if with a palette knife. Somewhere between here and there, I know this has been a theme of many posts looking back on my life as I travel RT.87 metaphorically. But now I sit and ponder where am I? On this journey from the 20th century to the 21st, resisting digital, yet addicted to the computer [this as all recent color work is digital] since the death of Kodachrome the dwindling number of labs that process E-6 color transparencies and my first love Black and White Film. I do process it myself but printing due to 2011-present Hospital/health odyssey I find it difficult painful to work in the dark for long.
Enough whining or back story. Reality or what passes for reality I wonder if I could print lot’s more, if I could but the apt. has over 1000 prints 15 of which are hanging at Higher Grounds Coffee House and Gallery. These images range from B+W to Kodachrome to digital all are pigment ink prints, a cross breeding of image making Between Here and There. I rarely use Photo Shop except to convert images to pixels to show you “Me.” Like a rift in the time continuum I sit between impressionism, film, digital. Digital provides instant gratification, yet also instantly forgotten while overpopulating the world of art photography. Instant art without the journey or emotion? Perhaps the journey is after the exposure? This image has had a little post process, perhaps I will work more with post process but when in my mind does the image become a painting rather than a photograph? This post of my thoughts is so 20th century way more than 140 characters. I could scan all the negs instead of printing them, another filing system then in a couple years I’d have to transfer to the latest forever file storage [remember cd’s were supposed to last forever? Now I read that forever is 3-5 years] I doubt that but will scan some as I travel back through 4 decades of images. More tomorrow the light and color is right. Comments here are appreciated thank you very much. enjoy pjc

Photographic Art

Norwich Blooms

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New London Turnpike-4-25-13-027
New London Turnpike.

Norwich Magnolias 4-26-13-044
Otis Street Magnolias

Tulip at Landmarks Cafe-4-27-13-045

A tulip outside Landmark Natural Foods at the Junction of 87 and 66. Very Good spot but closed Sunday. enjoy pjc

Photographic Art coming soon

Opening Weds. May First Photographer Peter J. Crowley Solo Exhibit At Higher Grounds 70 Main St. E. Hampton Ct.

Opening May First at Higher Grounds Gallery Coffee House

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Please Join me for art and snacks, music and comradeship. enjoy pjc Peace

Olde Port Lobsters T-15-96-Tiff Trans 4036_edited-2 Photographer Peter J. Crowley Solo Exhibit At Higher Grounds 70 Main St. E. Hampton Ct.

Norwich fine art photographer Peter J. Crowley will host an artist’s reception for his solo photo exhibit, The Art of Nature: Through My Lens, May First 2013 from 6-9pm,

Comprised of about nature photographs taken from 1972 to present, these are limited edition, giclee prints that Peter J. Crowley composes in the viewfinder – relying on his artistic eye and purpose rather than computer technology or multiple exposures in a darkroom. Mostly capturing the majestic beauty of New England, the photos, which include roughly 11 color photographs and four black and whites, represent the geographic range from Washington State to Rhode Island.

“It’s a much more intimate look at nature,” Peter said of the photographs, which include a fair amount of fall foliage- but not in the typical presentation. Some are surreal, transcending the objective beauty of autumn’s blushing vistas for the more transportive, visceral quality found in color and movement. In one shot, for example, Peter slows the exposure speed and moves the camera in the same direction as the wind, so the photograph reflects the moment he experienced – a moving palette of color.

For Peter, nature photography expresses new life, what is beautiful, and hope. When the wind became gusty in that autumn shot, instead of battling the element, he went with it – thinking: “I can stop the action or accentuate it.” The result is a surreal photograph that didn’t happen by accident, but, like all his works, is emotive.

“I’m expressing an emotion when I press the shutter. I know what I want,” Peter said, a stickler for using technology only to carry out artistic intent – not to create it.

Nature seems to share her secrets in the photographs of Peter J. Crowley, and that is perhaps because he has spent forty years mastering an exacting truth: simplicity is the hardest concept to grasp.

Well-regarded as a fine art photographer, Crowley’s work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum, and his publishing credits include a book “All the Usual Subjects – Seven Years of my Impressions of Willimantic.” The black and white photographs document the daily life in this old New England mill town.

Peter’s work is in private and public collections. His extensive exhibits include: Seasons and Metaphors (11/08) The Mystic Emporium (Solo); My Transparent Life (11/08) ArtSpace, Norwich Gallery Slide Show (Solo); A Life in Stone: The Cape Verdean Stone Masonry Tradition in Eastern Connecticut (1/08)(Two person show); Norwich Arts Council Gallery; and Mystic Arts Center Photo Show XXIX (10/07.

Photographic Art