About Kirk Carter

I photograph the things people have built, repaired, neglected and refurbished, destroyed or re-purposed.

My photos imply and define people through their possessions, their signs, the spaces they carve out, their personalized interiors, the stories inherent in the history of their objects.

I make environmental portraits where the person or group portrayed is intentionally framed out.

By eliminating facial expressions and body language from the portrait, my photos zero in on the telling details of the surroundings: the made objects or carefully-chosen belongings. The actions recorded in the things and places we make tell more about us than a smile or a pose, and hide less.

You might call me a "fine art photographer" because that's the broad category most of my images fall into, if only to distinquish it from "commercial" photogrpahy. I photograph telling objects, surfaces and spaces mostly in Roanoke, Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Virginia and points nearby.

:: Background

Whether snapshots, photographs, film or video, I've been shooting pictures since 1975. I learned black and white darkroom skills at the University of Maine. My student films at New York University incorporated stills, sometimes cut and pasted together to create "special" effects.

For most of the 1980's, I produced television shows for local cable stations. In video, a still image must convey an idea within 3-5 seconds, because there (was) no going back to see it again.

After earning a BSEE from the University of Central Florida in the 90's, I designed cellular base stations for AT&T. PowerPoint and a Sony Mavica were my communication tools of choice.

In 2000, I started Service First Webmasters, a business web site services company. A Nikon Coolpix was my first modern digital camera. With it I created product shots and images to serve as backgrounds and other graphic elements for web sites.

Service First Webmasters is still going strong, which is unusual in our industry. All to the good, as it now supports my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I now shoot with a Nikon D300 and some great lenses.

:: Photography Education

My education in photography includes taking lots of pictures, analyzing same, and trying to do better next time.

The stack of art and film courses I took were not enough to really understand what goes on in a still photo. Hence, my Book Acquisition Syndrome.

In essence, I'm a self-teaching photographer. The journey continues.

:: Image-Making Approach

My goal is always for the viewer to say, "Wow." "Wow!!" is better, but I'll take "Wow" and be happy. If they say, "I wish I'd taken that" or "I never saw it this way before" I consider the photo successful.

Getting there is, of course, the hard part. A good exposure with the right point of view, depth, focal point and sharpness is a great starting point. After that I explore what cropping and retouching might do to remove distractions and improve the clarity of the photo's statement.

All my photos get a kind of brush and polish in Photoshop, as a way of making them as technically perfect as possible. If I can add some drama or direct attention to the subject better through modifications to the tones or colors, I'll do it. The key is to keep it looking real. To me, if the viewer cannot believe what they see in the photo, the effort has failed.

:: Recognition

'Blue Moon' is included in a book called Roy G. Biv, published by Justus Hayes in 2008.

'River Bend' and 'Rocky Knob Meadow' received Honorable Mentions in the 2008 Scenic Virginia Photo Contest.

'Family Beach Walk on Assateague' was the Grand Prize Winner, by unanimous decision, in the 2008 Scenic Virginia Photo Contest.

Showed 3 prints at the juried EastMont Art Association Art with a Heart show, February 14-28, 2009 in Shawsville, Virginia.

Showed 15 framed prints at the juried Bread & Butter Art Show & Sale, a project of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, March 26, 2009.

Framed and matted prints featured at Everything Art Gallery, Fincastle, VA, June-December 2009.

River Bend printed in the Spring 2009 edition of the Society of Environmental Journalists newsletter.

'Rocky Knob Outcropping' received Honorable Mention in the Mountains category of the 2009 Scenic Virginia Photo Contest.

Showed 12 prints from the book Signs of Dysfunction at Mish Mish Gallery in Blacksburg, December 2009. Press coverage included a cover story in the Roanoke Times' NRV Current magazine by Amy Matzke-Fawcett.

Fifteen framed prints and 20 matted prints on display at West Main Coffee Depot in Christiansburg, January 11-April 25, 2010. Rustic/rural, summer/beach and dysfunctional signs.

January 15th, 2010: Accepted by the Round the Mountain jury for inclusion in their collection at Hearthwood: Southwest Virginia's Artisan Gateway in Abingdon, VA, due to open in 2011.

January 11 - April 25, 2010: 15 large framed prints, books and matted prints exhibited at West Main Coffee Depot in Christiansburg, as part of a local photographers show with Mike Miller and Bob Abraham.

February 28 - April 30, 2010: 18 large framed prints exhibited as part of a one-artist show called Signs, Surfaces and Spaces at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Blacksburg.