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| Self portrait in Belize | Diving in Cayman Brac | Our car in the British Virgin Islands | Krista in Chichicastenango |
My Name is Duncan Graham and I am a native of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I began taking pictures in the spring of 1998. Over the past few years I have continued to refine my photography with the help of a few select people: my wife, Krista, who presents me with many opportunities to see the world; my parents, though reluctant at first went on to give their unquestionable support; Jon Stuart and Mary Downey who owned Mountain Camera Supply, attempted to impart as much knowledge on me as they could while I worked for them; and Dan Cosentino, who always gave it to me straight when critiquing my photography. A prime example is when he gave me his thoughts of one of my exhibits by simply looking at the photographs and saying, "Yes" or "No". Most recently Steve and Carolyn Clawson, who seem to never tire of the questions that I pose to them about underwater photography.
A recent change in my shooting is that I have added a digital SLR to my collection of cameras. For a long time I was very reluctant to begin using digital due to the fact that that I am somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to photography. My inspirations being Edward Weston, Dorthea Lange, Bradford Washburn, Ansel Adams, and more recent additions Clyde Butcher, Norbert Wu and David Doubilet. My reasoning was when I spent countless hours trying to get a shot I want people look at it and be impressed that places and images of the sort truly exist and are not simply a Photoshop creation. One thing that did alter my opinion of using digital is something that Jon Stuart said during a very heated debate about the use of digital in landscape photography, "When I worked for Ansel one thing that he always did was embrace every new technology, he did this because he simply loved to take pictures and he was a man who loved to learn how to use new toys". I agreed with his statement about the love of photography but still didn't believe he would have ever used digital. That is until we got into a dicussion about Ansel's printing techniques. I then realized Ansel used the most rudimentary version of Photoshop on earth, the darkroom. The difference is that he took the version everyone had been using for decades and he modernized it with his homemade enlarger. He was a great photographer at the camera but a true master in the darkroom. Which begs the question would he have used digital? I think yes but only about as much as he used 35mm, for the important photographs I believe he would have stuck with the ever so easy to use 8x10.
I hope you enjoy these photographs as much as I have enjoyed taking them.