Eugene Hyon

Eugene Hyon:  The Non-Ephemeral Essentialist Photographer

Many people have described my work as intimate, mysterious, visionary, and evocative.

I use black & white photography, because it is the medium for articulating what I believe is the stripped down essence of the "non-ephemeral" world around us. What do I mean by "non-ephemeral" ? It is the photographing of images that have an innate sense of historical time and place, so when I photograph those images, I am capturing and placing them outside the normal transitory stream of existence.

My digital color photography does exactly the opposite of non-ephemeral by capturing life as it happens and appears to be moving on as I am photographing it.  It is essentially action photography articulating life in the present.  When I photograph, I zero in on the images in their essential compositional parts weeding out what is superfluous and trivial, and at the same time maintaining an artistic sense of proportion to the boundaries of the picture frame itself.  A characteristic of my photographic style is to calmly observe what is seen through the lens before clicking the shutter. 

So many images we see on a daily basis are driven by a mass media that emphasizes melodrama, violence, destruction, as well as the outrageous and sensational. There is never a reliance on shock value in any of my pictures. As a fine art photographer, it's my desire to show people that the world doesn't have to loom large and menacing. If you look at the world calmly, it's quite beautiful.  There's poignancy in simple things that can be found just around the corner and in places often taken for granted.  My black & white and color digital photography ultimately seeks to find that kernel of hope where the artificial constructs of human activity intersects with the spirituality and good side of human character.