Jack Welpott†

On my darkroom door there is a sign that says, I've gone to find myself, if I get back before I return keep me here! I found that sign in the high country of Arizona and when I laid eyes on it I felt it was a true expression of my life in photography. It has always been a personal quest. A quest with an unknown destination. Photography fleshes out ones life, gives it meaning and direction. For that I am deeply grateful.

   I like the process. The way in which it holds together opposites: light and dark, beautiful and ugly, sublime and banal. To make a photograph as honestly as one can generates artifacts that bear witness to ones personal truth. I like the way it locks you into the moment, the eternal present. Sometimes there is the physical sensation of light. The world becomes luminous. You get a chance to unite with reality. I have come to realize that it is more than an act of monitoring the world. Sometimes I feel like I am penetrating a void to a parallel universe. Pretty mystical I suppose.

   Perhaps none of this is very useful in looking at my work. The only advice I can give was offered by Minor White, "Look at it not for what it is, but for what else it is."

Jack Welpott

Inverness CA.