Robert Adler
Medium photography
Website https://radleris.myportfolio.com/work
LocationBelfast, Maine
My Photography Practice:
I took my first photograph with a pinhole camera I made with my uncle Kurt from a Savarin coffee can when I was 6 years old. We developed the film in his basement darkroom. I shot for many years with Olympus OM-1 and OM-2 film cameras. My personal artistic photography took a back seat to my career and family responsibilities until moving to Belfast, Maine in 2014. I purchased an iPhone 8 phone in 2014 shortly after moving to Maine, an Olympus digital camera in 2017, and an iPhone XS in 2018 with an eye towards using it regularly in photography.
I now do most of my shooting with an iPhone 13 Pro Max, sometimes with Moment lenses. I am also experimenting with images on metal and canvas in addition to photographic paper.
I greatly appreciate the power of digital photography to help me overcome the significant challenges associated with cataloging and storing for reference and use a variety of physical objects like negatives, slides, contact sheets, prints, etc. While shooting only digitally since 2017, I am committed to digitizing worthwhile film images (slides, negatives) I have shot over the years. Sadly, I do not have my first image created with a Savarin coffee can back in 1959.
My Personal Images Now:
My juried photos, beginning with an image published in American Photographer in 1980 and including far more recent images selected for group shows at RiverArts Gallery in Damariscotta and at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, precede my current work’s focus on revealing the often-unnoticed details in light reflecting off of everyday objects. I am currently seeking to reveal emotive resonance in the image by exploring texture, shape and mood. Rather than “taking” a picture, these images feel like they have taken me – revealing themselves in the shooting, editing, and printing processes.
