Richland Community College
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	Joe Wheeler I like being sarcastic. No really.
Artist's Statement I am not really sure what originally got me started in photography. Back in junior high, my father bought me a Nikon N65 35mm film camera. Due to my terrible memory, I cannot remember what it was that made me interested in cameras or taking pictures, but ever since my dad bought me that camera, I have enjoyed it and taking photographs has just came naturally. When I originally received my SLR, I had no idea how to use half of the features and the camera wheel rarely left the “auto” function. However, as I grew up, I kept using my camera and kept trying to take interesting pictures. Growing up in the Midwest is less than exciting. And growing up, I wasn’t exactly an extrovert. Being an only child, I had to find my own ways to try to entertain myself. When I wasn’t playing video games, I was out taking pictures around my neighborhood. What is there to take pictures of in the Midwest? I took pictures of whatever I could: sunsets, flowers, my pets and houses. There is a limit to how creative one can be taking pictures of those things especially with the limits we have when we are children. The only thing I had going for me was an agreement with my mother that I had made. I agreed to do my chores if she would pay for my film developing. I had no money to buy more equipment, I had no car to drive to new locations, and to top it all off, I was uneducated. So, I believe that I developed my particular style from trying to force myself to look at things from different angles. Instead of taking a photo of a flowering bush in my backyard, I tried getting closer to the blossoms. Instead of taking a picture looking down at my dog, I got down to his level. As I got older, my love for photography grew as well. I eventually discovered something fascinating to me- old cameras. Despite the fact that I had everything I needed in my modern electronic SLR, the cameras from the 70’s that I discovered in my mother’s closet fascinated me. It would seem that photography was already in my blood. Much to my surprise, I learned that my mother was just as interested in photography back when she was my age. And even more to my surprise, I learned that the manual cameras from the 70’s could do just as good of a job as my new camera. This inspired me to start learning about the manual features on my SLR. By then, I was moving on to college. I ended up taking a black and white film photography class with a very knowledgeable teacher. She helped me develop my style and taught me how to push the limits on the manual features on my camera. The style that had begun developing in my younger years was showing through in my black and white work. I excelled in object studies, landscapes and close-ups. I stretched myself and took myself out of my comfort zone in black and white class by taking pictures of people, still lifes, and even self portraits. Being an only child and having no friends meant that I never took many pictures of people growing up. I became fascinated and instantly hooked when I began churning out halfway decent work. I still remember the feeling I had when I walked out of the darkroom and saw a print that I had been working on that came out perfect. I was addicted. My parents eventually bought me a digital SLR for my birthday and it only fueled the fire. Now that I have established myself as an artist and amateur photographer, I intent to show people things that they have not seen before. Or, I intend to show them things that they have seen before in a different way. Artistically, I believe that contrast and composition in photos are very important. Most of my photo printing is done with filters. Whether or not the viewer likes my artwork or not is up to them. While I do like to show my viewers things, I actually create the artwork for myself. My art is something that spawned out of boredom and has been shaped into something artistic. Currently, my work has strayed away from the norm due to unrelenting artist’s block. I have been experimenting with new things and new compositions due to lack of ideas, subject matter, and time restraints. I feel like the struggling that I am going through is eventually going to make me better. It is rather discouraging trying to find new material when it seems like everything here has been done before. However, I know that there actually some problem within myself that is stopping me from producing work once again. I am excited to get through this phase and can feel good work coming back to me again sometime in my future.