Photographs, 1972-1979

Prior to 1972 I had not taken photography very seriously. In that year I took a night class to learn how to photograph the paintings I was making at the time. Soon thereafter I gave up painting and took up photography.

My tools were 35mm cameras loaded with black and white film and occasionally color slide film. From time to time I would experiment with large format cameras and studio lighting, but I would always return to the idea of photography in uncontrolled environments using small format hand held cameras.

I eventually came to make my living as an editorial assignment photographer, but in the seventies I simply carried a camera with me, taking pictures wherever I happened to be. From the start I sought instinctively to capture life as it presented itself to me.

This is my first exhibition at Kehler Liddell. In preparing for this exhibition I felt the need to return to the beginning and examine the work from the seventies, most of which I have never shown before.

Sven Martson, September 2013