Shadow Journals by Michael Young

Shadow Journals by Michael Young explores the way he sees the world and its movement in relationship to lights and shadows.  Capturing street images that play with this contrast, Michael’s photographs will expose a deeper reality making you see things you had never paid any attention to before.

“My approach requires the manipulation of light. I use the available light, and as it moves, it creates an atmosphere far different from what we see with our own eyes.” Michael Young

Artist’s Statement: 

My work captures reality but presents it so that the mundane is altered to depict a world that evokes a sense of isolation and separation.

Saul Leiter once said “Photography allows you to learn to look and see. You begin to see things you had never paid any attention to,”. Over the last five years I’ve been able to do what Saul describes, and I’m always inspired to compose, whether I have a camera with me or not.

I am influenced by Roy Decarava, Stanley Cortez and Fan Ho and their use of contrast between light and shadow.

My goal is to summon beauty from the plainest elements and create work that makes you feel a part  of my experience and gives you a front seat to the world the way I see it.