bright lights (2019) Photography by Phillip Windell

I began capturing photographs while I was in the Peace Corps, stationed in West Africa. from 1967 to 1969. Following my service, I enrolled in graduate school (Sociology). An artist friend saw my images and encouraged me, introducing me to the then rather nascent Pittsburgh Filmmakers, including access to high quality facilities for developing and printing photographs. Yes, this was film. Things changed. The Filmmakers moved, My career in public service began to take off; opportunities opened. My career has been spent elsewhere (mostly government service at the feds, the county and the state), but I have always had a camera. I was given a copy of Photoshop in 2005. I am driven by a tiger and a lion. Yes the conflict and fight, but in the end the result is quality images. at least IMHO. You be the judge.

The tiger is the drive to document. Not must my life, but life around me. In the manner of Walker Evans and the several folks, like Dorothea Lange who participated in documenting America in the 1930s. A photograph is the capture of light at a certain place at a certain time. In so doing, I am  often attracted to light-plays that others may not appreciate -- in the moment. I strive to draw attention, or focus the viewer's attention to a detail, to a perspective. Often to a mundane detail or object. I want the viewer to attend to what they often frequently see, but fail to attend to. Like a weed growing through a crack in the cement. The fading flower blossom of a dying plant. 

The lion enters with Photoshop and the several cousins. He is capable of destroying all that a photograph once meant. Now you can play with the image. So the viewer beware. Is it real or is it phtoshopped? is it manipulated?

I like to play in both realms. However, I clearly distinguish images that are pure and simple: this is the play of light at this moment in time; from those that I have played with in Photoshop. They are clearly labeled. I may alter the brightness or the contrast in order to enhance the image. But the content is otherwise not altered.

In my "work," the Lion and the Tiger drive one another. Some of my work is purely "documentary," as it were: The Tiger clearly dominating. The images from the Kentucky 4th of July Parade, for example, and all the landscape and portrait images. But the Lion gets his licks in over time, twisting the raw images with Photoshop. "Capturing" which is not currently available on my website. (Working on it.) Many of the images in the Abstract and all those in what I have labeled "Constructed;" that is images that I have constructed using other images and then some of the many tools available in Photoshop.

I retired from my position with Pennsylvania State Government in January 2021 and returned to Pittsburgh where I currently reside. I am now able to devote more time to my photography, but especially on trying to share my images with others, with the hope of some change in my pocket.

I hope you enjoy what you see.

• Nationality: UNITED STATES
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary American Artists