A RELATIVELY SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I got a Brownie box camera and a darkroom kit for Christmas when I was ten years old. I can very clearly remember going outside on that Christmas morning and looking at my dad's 1938 Chevy through the camera's viewfinder...the graceful curving line of a front fender, the teardrop shape of a headlight with the strong horizontal lines of the grill behind it.
Back then I didn't realize looking through that viewfinder made it possible for me to select a subject from the visual muddle of the world around me, then aesthetically organize it into foreground, background, and overall design...in other words, to create art. All I knew was that looking through that viewfinder was a new and exciting way of seeing.
That was more than sixty years ago and I'm still taking pictures.
To describe my adult life more or less briefly and more or less chronologically...I have been a photo hobbiest, a commercial art student, a telephone lineman, an Airman in the Navy, an Operator in an oil refinery, a very serious student of photography, a motorcycle racer, and a professional fireman for many years. During these fire department years I was also a freelance travel and news photographer and writer, a single parent (two teenagers), and a BMX photographer and writer. The BMX photography led to creating and publishing BMX Action and later Freestylin' magazines...for which, by choice, I did most of the photography and quite a bit of the writing. Surprisingly, my photographs from these BMX YEARS have in the past ten years or so become collectible as fine art photography.
A decade or so later, the success of the magazines allowed me to pursue large format fine art photography full time. During these LARGE FORMAT YEARS I travelled throughout the U.S. and to many foreign countries, searching for compelling images. Many of the photographs from these years have been displayed in museums, galleries, and private collections and have been published in books, magazines, and calendars.
Then a day came in 1992 when I stopped taking pictures, sold all my camera and darkroom equipment, and began building Harley choppers.
Fifteen years later, in the Winter of 2007, I bought a Nikon DSLR.
To me, the pictures you see in RECENT WORK represent the rekindling of a warm, old love affair with photography...this time with a digital camera, Photoshop, and a large Epson pigment ink printer.
I find that once again, maybe even more than in the past, photography is a presence, a song, a challenging quest that is always in my mind. And, after more than sixty years, I find that I still get excited about looking at old Chevys through a viewfinder. (RECENT WORK: Old Chevy Truck, Montana 2007)
Bob Osborn
Livingston, Montana
I got a Brownie box camera and a darkroom kit for Christmas when I was ten years old. I can very clearly remember going outside on that Christmas morning and looking at my dad's 1938 Chevy through the camera's viewfinder...the graceful curving line of a front fender, the teardrop shape of a headlight with the strong horizontal lines of the grill behind it.
Back then I didn't realize looking through that viewfinder made it possible for me to select a subject from the visual muddle of the world around me, then aesthetically organize it into foreground, background, and overall design...in other words, to create art. All I knew was that looking through that viewfinder was a new and exciting way of seeing.
That was more than sixty years ago and I'm still taking pictures.
To describe my adult life more or less briefly and more or less chronologically...I have been a photo hobbiest, a commercial art student, a telephone lineman, an Airman in the Navy, an Operator in an oil refinery, a very serious student of photography, a motorcycle racer, and a professional fireman for many years. During these fire department years I was also a freelance travel and news photographer and writer, a single parent (two teenagers), and a BMX photographer and writer. The BMX photography led to creating and publishing BMX Action and later Freestylin' magazines...for which, by choice, I did most of the photography and quite a bit of the writing. Surprisingly, my photographs from these BMX YEARS have in the past ten years or so become collectible as fine art photography.
A decade or so later, the success of the magazines allowed me to pursue large format fine art photography full time. During these LARGE FORMAT YEARS I travelled throughout the U.S. and to many foreign countries, searching for compelling images. Many of the photographs from these years have been displayed in museums, galleries, and private collections and have been published in books, magazines, and calendars.
Then a day came in 1992 when I stopped taking pictures, sold all my camera and darkroom equipment, and began building Harley choppers.
Fifteen years later, in the Winter of 2007, I bought a Nikon DSLR.
To me, the pictures you see in RECENT WORK represent the rekindling of a warm, old love affair with photography...this time with a digital camera, Photoshop, and a large Epson pigment ink printer.
I find that once again, maybe even more than in the past, photography is a presence, a song, a challenging quest that is always in my mind. And, after more than sixty years, I find that I still get excited about looking at old Chevys through a viewfinder. (RECENT WORK: Old Chevy Truck, Montana 2007)
Bob Osborn
Livingston, Montana
