Rusty Leffel

The medium for my expression as an artist is Street Photography. I am fascinated by cities and how we live our day-to-day, regular lives in them. I look with an artistic sense for how we express ourselves individually, how we interact with each other and how we interact with the built environment around us. In portraying the humanity on our streets I will take many images and then edit, edit, edit to find the photograph that expresses the feeling that I had in taking it. I go without an agenda or plan or type of photograph I want to take. I respond to what I see and how the emotion of the moment strikes me. If I am fortunate enough to find that emotional expression I had felt on the street in my image, I share it through my prints. When I survey my Street Photography, I consider how it is a portrayal of feelings and emotions rather than the reporting of scenes on a street. To enhance feelings and emotions in presentation of my work I print images in sepia tones which lend a timelessness to them. I also print on a watercolor paper that softens the edges to present the photograph more experientially. I work to present photographs that engage the viewer in a way that those feelings and emotions I experienced can come across through continuing conversations between the viewer and my photograph. I choose cities as the backdrop for my Street Photography where much of the life experience is shaped on the streets. As streets of our lives, these streets are main thoroughfares for work and play, errands and entertainment, relationships and experience. In many ways, our streets are a great equalizer since all people use them – a common bond. I look for those common joys, surprise, beauty, interest and concerns we all have that show up on these streets and share it through my Street Photography.