About Me
My Work
“It is the melting of the reality that was present at the moment of exposure and the reality created in my mind.
Reality is transient.
My images are moments captured of reality, I control that moment, and I can bend it after that moment to create my vision.
As an artist, it is the most inspiring way to express reality as I want to see it, the resultant image is my interpretation.”
Biography
I am from the Detroit area. I have dedicated my life to the photographic pursuit of exploring the world through the camera lens. With light and shadow, I explore the essence of the beauty in the lines, curves, colors and shapes of the natural world.
I started in the arts in my early teens, drawing, painting, and taking pictures. My love of the natural world drove my art. I remember makeshift darkrooms in my parents' basements and community college photography classes.
The realization of my artistic goals would have to wait, however. First came my stint in the corporate world, with a career at a telephone company. On vacations, I traveled widely and photographed landscapes in wild places.
After 16 years of corporate life, I was given the option of a buyout, and I decided to take it. I went back to school and majored in photography. At school, I tookdrawing and painting classes again and through theory and practice learned to apply those skills more broadly. How thankful I am now that I paid attention.
I graduated from the Center for Creative Studies with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Along the way, I discovered a new landscape to explore. The darkroom that had been my temple was becoming my bane because of health reasons; the digital world came into existence just in time for me. The new landscape I discovered in school was the female body, and the new way to explore was through digital photography.
After school I worked for 20 years as a commercial advertising photographer while at the same time pursuing my fine art work. Around 2010 I started dealing with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which curtails much of my ability to actively pick up a camera and work for any appreciable amount of time. It forced me to retire at the time as I learned to deal with the disease. I am still able to work on images on the computer and I have a plenty of possible images to work with.
For me, the art is not necessarily in the capture of an image; it can be just the beginning. Give me an image and my current image editing software along with a tablet and a pen; all that drawing and painting converge with my darkroom experience to help me create my own reality. I'm looking for the essence of the beauty that is in front of me. When I feel the convergence is right, a new image is born.
Jim Young
Summer, 2025
Detroit, Michigan USA
