TM Cleland

Biography

One can barely pull a camera out of a purse without getting my attention, and it's been that way almost as long as I've known what a camera was. As a child I often carried an old camera I had found around with me, pretending to take pictures even though I usually had no film. As I got older, I took great interest in experimenting with how light affects film, many times with odd light sources (which included lighting a sink on fire). Though I used photography as a graphic artist, the moment I "became" a photographer was while viewing Paul Strand's photographs in Los Angeles. The stark gelatin silver prints connected the film experiments of my teens and early 20's with the design principles I had picked up as a graphic artist, forming a drive that rapidly consumed my life.

Artist Statement

Thematically, my work is a fusion of landscape and street photography.  The goal is to bring the reverence landscape photographers have for nature to the city. Somewhat documentary in nature, my photos work to show the both the vibrancy and liveliness of mankind, and the balance humans and nature have been trying to reach for millennia. Though often no people are present in the photos, our presence is always shown.

Major influences include Pentti Sammallahti, Paul Strand, Nan Goldin and Henri Cartier-Bresson.