CLAYTON COTTERELL
The medium is magic
20 June 2017
Clayton Cotterell‘s minimalistic and artful photographs offer a refreshing and contemporary take on a blend of traditional artistic techniques – colour, chiaroscuro, monochrome, lighting and shade. Looking at Cotterell’s work is like looking at a photographer’s manual that cites a comprehensive variety of techniques available to any budding photographer in order to produce certain types of image.
This is of course part of the charm of the Portland-based photographer’s skilled vision and simultaneously positions him as an artist-educator. His work makes a clear statement on the flexibility and potential of the medium itself, allowing both artist and viewer to revel in the diversity of its results. And it celebrates the magic of photography, its ability to turn the ordinary into extraordinary, and offers an open lesson on how simple manoeuvres in focus, framing, colour, composition and lighting can change the photographed subject profoundly.