Artist Statement
When asked what kind of pictures I make, I often reply, "Pictures about nothing." I start by looking where something isn’t…while being mindful of all that could be. Visual images which elicit emotions often do so by reaching inside us to places that are often hard to access, hard to articulate,hard to share, hard to hold, and, most significantly, hard to withhold. Expressive photography is language; it’s the language that commences when words constructed from phonics do not adequately express a concept. In my cortex model of photography as language, light becomes the noun, texture the adjective, and verbs remain still. My personal journey is a search for the quiet place where light reveals rather than obscures, visual chaos is silenced, and the moment is defined and preserved by nothing more than the smooth, quiet click of my Leica’s shutter. The elevation of voyeurism to craft has indeed acquired its voice, What photography does best is speak at a volume and clarity that is best consumed on a canvas of silence. Process Statement
When the light is perfect or the picture has just a moment of life, I seek the nearest camera, often with little to no regard for it's analog or digital orientation. In part, this indiscriminate use has led to the construction of a hybrid image which, well-crafted, contains an inherent beauty not otherwise revealed. Often beginning as a negative and executed to print using current digital tools. A myriad of media, inks, hardware and software options, results in a cross-pollinated, fade-resistant and stabile print. The commingling of analog and digital techniques yields a print where theory and practice find a harmonious co-existence. No egalitarian pursuit has rivaled that of today's fascination with photography
 

 

 

Fishman's connection with photography spans more than four decades. He spent 4 years in Mississippi, arriving 36 hours after Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. What evolved were three independent but connected bodies of work' "silent witness" 2005-2006, "southern discomfort" 2006-2007, and epilog 2007-2009". published as his first book These three bodies of work came to be know as the "Mississippi Suite". The Katrina Research Center widely acknowledged as the ultimate authority and repository of all thing Katrina, holds over 100 of Fishman's exhibition prints in their permanent archive. He is widely believed to be the author of the largest contiguous body of photographic work on Hurricane Katrina to date, with over 6000 images and files. Widely exhibited, his photographs are found in numerous private, public and museum collections throughout North America including, The Mead Museum of Art in Amherst Massachusetts, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, The Center for the Arts in Escondido, Escondido, CA, The Joy of Giving Foundation, NY, NY, The Museum of Art at The University of Southern Mississippi, The Vernon Collection, The Katrina Research Center at The Gulf Coast Campus at The University Of Southern Mississippi and The School of Mass Communication and Journalism at USM. Articles and portfolios of his work have been Published in Black and White Magazine, issue #16, December 2001 and an eight page cover feature in Black and White Magazine #42, April 2006. Additional he has been featured, in The Los Angeles Times, The Hattiesburg American, The Santa Barbara News Press, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Santa Barbara Magazine and Photo Magazine (formerly Photo) He was a co-owner and founder of The Staton Greenberg Gallery in Santa Barbara with partner Howard Greenberg of The Howard Greenberg Gallery In New York. Fishman lectures on photography and it's aesthetics .He has been a member of The University of Southern Mississippi's Faculty, and currently remains it's Artist in Residence at The Katrina Research Center. Fishman was co-founder of PhotoFutures at The Santa Barbara Museum and remains Chair of Fine Art Programming.