Russ Martin seems to be everywhere these days which is a good thing because Russ has been involved in photography for several decades, over 30 of them as a photography teacher, and it’s about time for the accolades. I am remiss in featuring his work (I thought I already had) as his images of nature have been garnering a lot of interest and winning numerous awards, including First Place in the PX3 Award, Nature. Russ was also recently featured on Two Way Lens and in Visura Magazine. Russ shares his web site with his wife, Marcia Schulman Martin, and her work is a beautiful companion to his nature work.

Russ speaks about working with one idea over a period of years. By limiting his subject matter, the deeper and more meaningful my images become. By returning to the same plants over and over, he has been able to witness all the stages of the plant’s life. By examining the plant’s structure on a regular basis, he is continually able to generate new ways of seeing.

I am on a journey through life. It began in 1949 in the upstate New York village of Clinton. I have no idea when or where it will end. In the meantime, I respond to what I see and feel. I record my responses in the form of objects called photographs. I make them of anything that stimulates me enough to raise the camera to my eye and push the shutter release. Sometimes, it can be the classic beauty or design found in nature. Other times, material found in urban spaces may stimulate me. I still haven’t figured out why I make the images that I do. However, it probably has it’s roots in my genes, the environments I experienced, my formal education, and images that I have seen. In any case, I will persist in making pictures as much as I can and for as long as I can with the hope that others may appreciate the beauty, wonder, variety, humor, and craziness of what I have seen on my trip through life.

Images from The Hosta Project

Images from Wilted Hosta Group