Purple Pig Photography @ Purple Pig Photo
Artist    Gallery    Rates    Prints    Blog     365    Contact    RSS    
Artist Statement

Chris Schernwetter, Owner & Photographer, Purple Pig Photography

I’ve often been asked how I got started in photography. My roots run back to sometime in the late 1980s while I was in high school. It was then that I first picked up a camera and realized I had a natural talent for the art of photography. During high school I was with my camera more than I was without it. I even decided I would like to make a career out of my talent and attended college as a Photo Major (Biomedical Photography).

College has a funny way of changing people however. I ended up pursuing different interests and photography became a little less important as the big Internet boom changed the lives of many people, including myself. I never lost sight of my talent; I only became less involved as my path led me down other roads.

After a few years went by, I began to focus more on developing my creativity behind the lens. I began experimenting and pushing my limits as an artist. I have always strived to go beyond what I have done and to challenge myself further in the hopes of not only learning more about myself, but to discover new way of expression.

In 2000 I ran into a major dilemma about how to proceed forward with photography. Digital cameras were starting to become more popular as more and more professionals were starting to change over from traditional film to the new digital medium. After doing a lot of research and some reflection on the matter, I decided I would give this new way of doing things a try. I did a lot of testing between both film and digital cameras and eventually decided to move over to a digital camera as my primary camera.

As a photographer who has spent countless hours locked away in a darkroom, I decided I would treat both digital and film photographs the same. To preserve the integrity of my art, I do not alter my digital photographs in any way that I would not be able to do in a darkroom with film negatives. Once you start making changes to a photograph on a computer it changes from being a photograph to being a piece of digital art. I’m not a Digital Artist, but a Photographer. There is a major difference. A Digital Artist uses a computer to create art, while a Photographer uses a camera and the world around him to create art.