This week I am featuring work that I encountered at Review LA, either in a review or on the Portfolio Walk.

In today’s digital world of imagery, we often overlook the lone photographer who still sets up the tripod, gets under a dark hood, and looks at the world upside down. Santa Fe photographer, Philip V. Augustin, is just that person. A native of Nebraska, he received his BA in photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. After a career as an educator and photographer, Phillip moved to Santa Fe and began documenting the simplicity in the shapes and shadows of adobe architecture. He is a technical master, yet makes the emotional impact of his work a priority. He teaches darkroom workshops and Guided Photo Tours, and continues create work in the West Coast style of photography.

As an artist I am continually exploring my feelings and challenging my perceptions. It is through the process of examining my internal and external environment that my work flows. Looking back at the body of work I have created over the past twenty years the threads running throughout are simplicity and strong graphic elements. While that simplicity and organization are not necessarily reflections of what is inside of me at any given time, they are manifestations of my desires for emotional calm and simplicity.

True to my roots, I still feel that when it comes time to transform the image from vision to reality, nothing can match the richness of tones achieved in a traditional silver gelatin print. This richness creates a visual and tactile quality that has the power to draw the viewer in. Each image is printed and processed by hand using traditional (non-digital) photographic techniques. It is important to me that the artist’s hand be present in every phase of the process.