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The Photography of William Carpenter

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While I enjoy photography in all its forms, I am particularly interested in:
  • Photo documentaries
  • Photo essays
  • Cultural landscapes
  • Natural landscapes and nature photography
  • Architectural photography
  • Construction progress and documentation
William Carpenter
Winter Springs, Florida
I have been an avid amateur photographer since early childhood. Growing up during an age when photography was the the dominate communications media had a profound influence on me. I poured through magazines full of wonderful photographs of the day: Life, Look, National Geographic and Playboy which was just getting started. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, and I still have the images I took with that camera and am still proud of them.

In the interim I have taken thousands of images: slides; color negatives; black and white medium format which I self-developed and printed; and now digital using a computer as the dark room. Since 2004 after semi-retiring, I have been able to devote more time to photography and have undertaken a more formal education. I have studied at Seminole Community College where I took three courses, and at The Crealde School of Art where have taken twelve courses and attended numerous workshops. I also took a summer course at the Maine Photography Workshop on the Essentials of the Photo Essay.

My concentration recently has been Documentary Photography. I have produced documentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings at Florida Southern College; Pedestrian safety issues on Aloma Avenue and Semoran Boulevard in the Orlando area; on Central Florida Commuter Rail (SunRail); and a current project, Along Florida State Route 50. All of these documentaries are on web sites which I designed and programmed.

We see our world as light enables us to, and light sources and our environment are constantly changing. Understanding how the changing light affects a photographic image enables me to use light in my photography to express thoughts and emotions.

Recently, with my focus on documentary photography, I have been pursuing topics where my photography can make a difference in the social condition. Truth is the principal driver of social change, and truth is what I strive to portray in my documentary work.