MAYES MACDONELL
ANALOG ARTIST

Artist Statement 

I am an American. I was born in Grand Prairie, Texas.  But I've also spent time elsewhere, in nearly fifty countries. The world leaves impressions that I am still learning to communicate.  But it also confirms what I've always felt and that is: a pure, and total fascination with ways of the past.

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I call myself an analog artist  since the work is rooted in materials and methods that have existed for over 150 years: film cameras, light-sensitive emulsions, photo enlargers, darkroom chemicals, archival paper. I am something of a purist. I keep manipulation to a minimum, letting the process speak for itself.

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Nothing is innovative about my work, simply because I hope to capture the same timelessness and romance of the photographers before me. My deepest connection to this craft lives in a single object: a silver-framed photograph from my grandmother's wedding day in the 1930s. The texture of the paper. The tonality of the print. The way age settled into its color and lent it a quiet charm. It carries her essence.

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Through images of people, places, and plants — I look for that same feeling, with curiousity about the mood, fragrance, or interior of the subject.  Asking... "how would it like to be remembered?".