Black & White photography has always held a concurrent interest with my colour photography. In some situations, its reductionist simplicity renders form, texture and tone as basic elements of a more complicated entirety, thus making the visual statement more concise. However, the number of instances where the added dimension of colour would be missed if omitted has led me to carry only one camera on my trecks about the urban and rural wildernesses.

My interest in graphics began in the early '70's when I felt frustrated by the lack of control over the content of the final image. Like the colour component, there are few instances where an image cannot be enhanced by the juxtaposition of contrasting or sympathetic imagery. Similarly, the level of abstraction and control over virtually every picture element available with modern image-editing software such as Photoshop®, makes silver photography seem archaic. The screen prints shown here were just such a foray into the abstractedness of familiar shapes taken out of context, manipulated and colourized with an irrelevant palette. I can't speak for other artists, but photo serigraphy is just about the messiest medium around, with the cleaning of the screens right up there with Michelangelo's paint-in-the-eye. The advent of the ink jet printer has liberated photography from the fumes and drudgery of the darkroom and now allows for very longlasting, durable and colourfast "Giclée" prints.

The democratizing asset of the Internet has permitted freer expression of individual ideas than ever before. It has extended the reach of art aficionados, who now have access to a growing database of remote but interconnected artists such as myself. Digital images on wall screens will soon provide a variable venue of images from the artist's CD or online. The computer software which makes all this possible has migrated to the "happy snaps" of the family photographer who may become interested in more than just taking out the red-eye. One can predict with certainty that digital manipulation of photographic images will become commonplace and will be utilized by future artists in new and exiting ways.