I probably look at more than 100 images a day, not counting my own. Smart phones have moved photography from the realm of the artist and craftsman to the every day person. Some may rue that development, but this is, after all, what happened to writing itself after the invention of the printing press by Johhanned Gutenberg in 1450. So now we are inundated with photography in every form, from Ansel Adams hanging on a gallery wall to the millions of photos displayed in Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, etc.
As is the case with writing, most of it is pedestrian. Nothing wrong with that — after all, a merchant’s log is still writing and necessary to society. Most people taking photos don’t claim any special status, either. Unfortunately, though, there are many, many “photographers” whose work is really not much better than anything else you’d find on Facebook.
That’s why it was such a joy to me to discover the work of Jared Christopher Martin. I like photography that is unique; I’m not a fan of images that have been done a thousand times by other people (even though I do those images myself sometimes). Jared Martin satisfies my need for this imagery. Some of it reminds me of the Japanese woodblock prints I grew up with; some of it consists of collages of images assembled into a cohesive whole, as in his Glass Works Portfolio, or his Abstractions Portfolio.
For 25 years of his life, Jared Martin was an actor, starring in “Dallas”, “How the West Was Won”, “War of the Worlds” and many other works. Recently he left film sets and turned to photography, winning the Best Landscape Photograph of 2008 by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and a one man show at the Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta in 2012.
Words cannot do justice to his remarkable work. I urge you to go directly to his site and wander through his portfolios at your leisure.