I bear witness; I am my camera. I want to show you the world as I know it: broken or whole, rebuilding, appearing, disappearing . . .

Before I was a photographer, I was a poet., and as time passed I found my poems growing smaller and smaller, less dependent upon words and more dependent upon images. And then one day I put down the pen and took up the camera.

I am not so interested in a photography which shows the viewer what we see – but rather how we see. Imperfection, perfection, tiny detail. Any harmony is momentary, any strife soon left behind. I value the subjective view, the once in a lifetime chance of my eye, my camera, and the elements around me all coming together to make this thing we call a photograph.

Perhaps as a reaction to the easy perfection of new technologies I have returned to very basic methods. Grinding chemicals, mixing them by hand, flowing emulsions and applying pigments with brushes. Rather than the ubiquitous inkjet print I have chosen the hand-inked plates, damp paper and printing press of the intaglio printing process.  The perfection I seek is an emotional perfection rather than technical perfection.

I hope that you enjoy my work. Each print or plate is, I hope, an expression of gratitude, for beauties always threatening to pass beyond expression.

Jeanne Wells, 2011