Art Ferrier am a native of Lowell, Massachusetts currently residing in Nashua, NH. I live with my brilliant wife Nancy and have been closely associated with the Chimera gallery in Nashua. I am also a high school history teacher who tries to convince his 15 year-old students that if they pay attention they will soon realize that they are absolutely surrounded by beauty. I have been a serious photographer from the moment in around 1976 when I acquired my first decent 35mm SLR; a Topcon UNI I believe. At first, like most new shooters, I recorded pretty much everything in sight, but I soon began to discover my eye, much as a writer discovers her voice, and my work became very different. My attention was increasingly drawn to the pure design elements of line, texture, shape, color and form. The relationships among these elements led me quickly to shoot almost exclusively in color. Throughout the late 1970' ands into the 80's my eye and skills evolved and I was quite successful in local and regional art festivals and competitions. My firt major solo exhibition was in October, 1985 at the Whistler House gallery in Lowell. The title of the collection was "Objects of Interest" and I have always felt that that sums up well how I shoot.I generally shoot alone, walking in cities, junkyards, or wherever looking for the magic places where the elements fall serendipitiously together to produce something profoundly beautiful. It has been my good fortune that peo[ple have responded well to my work from the start. My influences are many, but include few photographers. I have great admiration for Edward Weston, for his commitment to his subject; for Ansel Adams for his commitment to his craft; and forJay Maisel for being the best color photographer on the planet. For years every time an image really knocks me out it turns out to be one of his. Aside from photography I am crazy about Matisse, Rothko, O'Keefe, Picasso, Hopper, and so many more. Because I experience the visual world as a feast of beautiful light, color, and forms, and because I struggle for ways to communicate and share this vision with others I admire those who have most successfully taught the public new ways to see and experience their visual environments. |