Alys Briggs

ABOUT ME AND MY WORK

Although I trained as a lawyer and practiced law for 35 years, I came from an “artsy craftsy” family. (Both my father and sister were artists and art teachers.) I started my photographic journey as a kid. My first camera was a Brownie - I even had a dark room (without running water) in my bedroom closet. The subjects were typical: family, camp, Christmas, etc. I don't remember what became of the camera, but when my sister and I took our first trip to Europe, our father lent us his Canon range finder, and I started my travel photo collection. I then bought my own point and shoot, followed by a light weight Pentax. My cameras had become a little more sophisticated, but my eye did not. When, the digital revolution arrived with new cameras, and no longer having to worry about the cost of film, my photography became more imaginative

I find myself drawn to a variety of subjects, including cycles and museum goers. I look for some resonance between a particular work of art and the dress or person viewing the work. Sometimes what appeals is the atmosphere of a place. Other times, it is simply a pattern of colors in the scene.

And then came Photoshop. For the past several years, I have been creating photomontages: a new image created from blending several photographs together. Sometimes the connection between the photographs is obvious, sometimes not, but in each I seek to combine images with some thematic connection between them. (All of the images I use are my own photography, with a few exceptions in photomontages where I make creative use of well known works of art on public exhibition.)

At this point in my artistic journey, I now consider myself as more of a graphic artist who uses a camera as a tool, as a painter does a brush.