Ken and Mary Goodrich

Ken Goodrich

Mary Goodrich

I don’t dream in pictures. I make photographs so I can visualize my own dreams; so I can coax into consciousness the emotions and ideas that wash over me in sleep. My images are portals back into the night; into silence and wholeness.

For me, nature opens the door to personal mysteries. A sudden wind, driving rain, earthquakes, a volcanic eruption, the smell of the forest floor early in the morning, the feel of the ocean on my skin, the sound of waves at sunset – these things enliven me and awaken ancient memories.

I never stayed in the house. When I was four years old I was already exploring the hills and streams near my California home. With my little Boston terrier I ventured into the peace and silence of the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. These early experiences still exert a huge influence on who I am and how I work. All my photographs are about my relationship with nature. My landscapes and images of people reflect my dreams, my feelings and emotions.

My earliest desire to create art came when I saw Disney’s animated film, “Fantasia”, at age four. In my school years and beyond I painted with watercolors and made pen and ink drawings of people and animals in fantastical landscapes purely from my imagination. One day, I literally saw The Light – a stray beam from the setting sun isolating and illuminating a flower petal – and knew in that moment that I wanted to make photographs. Exhilaration burgeoned inside. Within a few days I had my first real camera, a Pentax Spotmatic. I began to make slide images to share with family and friends. In a few years I was creating dissolve slideshows with 3 projectors and showing my work in galleries and at events.

One learns photography mostly by doing it. I taught myself photography – with a little help from my creative friends. My inspiration for photography also came from music, sculpture, paintings and the written word as well as from other photographers. I particularly like the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe and photographs by Imogen Cunningham.

My subjects are usually the things of the Earth. Rocks, water, plants and clouds. I like finding quirky things in the environment, like a face in a rock or animal forms in tree bark. When I go out with the camera I don’t usually have a specific idea of what I’m looking for but everywhere I see certain shapes and lines that I recognize as though they are pictures I’ve already taken. These elements have come to be like old friends, a part of my senses, an endless evolving theme in my life. I care more about visual significance than technical perfection. My work with the landscape, botanicals and the figure is spontaneous, often abstracted and I like images that are less than literal. I often find awesome abstractions in such things as burned cars, derelict buildings and the things of decay.

I didn’t know my father. He left when I was six months old. All I knew was that he was an artist in New York City; an illustrator. When I was in my mid 30’s and I finally met my father, I was astounded at how similar we were. I definitely inherited my artistic genes from him. His uncompromising, lifelong dedication to his art is a continuing inspiration.

As an image-maker I create photographs that represent my feelings, emotions and dreams. I animate these still images and use music to reinforce the emotional experience. The end result might be a video, a lightshow or a site-specific installation, and perhaps a portal back into silence and wholeness.

For years I worked in my darkroom and then hand painted many of my prints. It is much harder to get darkroom materials now and many papers and chemicals have been discontinued. The present is a time of personal expansion as I reluctantly close the darkroom door and begin to explore the world of digital possibilities.

On the evening of June 18^th in the gardens and gallery of idspace I will explore the mystery of the human form with projected imagery, sound installations and photographic prints. I share the gallery with the inspiration of my life and master photographer, Mary Goodrich.