"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” Lewis Hine

Barbara Lyter
Artists Statement

I have been creating images since I was a child. I create because the compulsion to do so is stronger than any addictive substance.

I was formally trained as a painter. It was in the time of flower children, peace and love, Woodstock and Watergate. One of the most memorable moments of my time in art school was the initial horror of loading film while being locked in a 2’ X 2’ totally dark closet that would have been considered a violation of the Geneva Convention. I cursed the day I was born. I cursed the day that the adjudicator that sentenced me to this prerequisite was born. I found myself reflecting on a conversation with my roommates. Just the night before the class was to begin, I had been firmly expressing my thoughts that the camera could not truly portray emotion. I was solid in my conviction that to truly convey passion, one should use more traditional media such as paint, chalk, pencil etc. These tools were an extension of the soul.

The film would not go on to the reel easily. I found myself making promises to deities that I had only read about.

As time wore on, the temperature in the closet rose proportionately to my frustration. I had now spent more time than it took to write the Geneva Convention trying to load the impossibly gossamer thin film on a metal reel which had now had developed a personality of its own. It was laughing at me.

Success finally was granted to me. I stepped out of my cell, and proceeded to the darkroom. There was a soft amber glow about it. I began to calm down. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light. Not soon enough. I walked straight in to the wall that separated enlargers from the developing trays. How much more insult would I have to endure?

I chose my enlarger and placed the negative in the holder. I watched as the image came into focus. Something snapped in my subconscious. I placed the paper in the tray. Gradually an image appeared. It was like watching an apparition appear. It was like nothing I had imagined. It was magic. I was mesmerized by the transformation of an image that I had seen but not truly remembered. I became a “privileged witness”.

I have been making photographs ever since.

With the invention of the computer and software such as Photoshop, the possibilities are endless. I know photographers who today say that digital photography is not “real photography”. I smile and wonder. What ever happened to that wonderful being that made me take that photography class…