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Ever since I was a child, I have had spells of reverie during certain gripping visual moments. I can clearly remember watching windblown oak leaves flashing shades of green and feeling transfixed with the need to capture what I saw. At the time, I did not have access to a camera, so I made wild stabs at describing such beauty with words. The result felt somehow incomplete. Though I developed a love of the written word, it was not until I held my first camera that I felt the relief of knowing that now I could truly show the world my vision of the immense beauty that surrounds us, a beauty that we experience moment by moment, detail by detail.

As I acquired skill in this new art, my vision expanded beyond the details of the natural world to encompass the realm of human emotion and relationships. I love to photograph the subtle expressions of feeling that pass between people who know each other so well, they don't need words, or the suddenly alert eyes of a newborn listening to his mother's voice. Our lives are composed of an uncountable number of these finite moments that imbue the major events, such as birth and marriage, with depth and meaning.

My artistic vision has also been informed by my experience as a deep tissue massage therapist. Bodywork has sparked in me an ongoing fascination with the wonder of our physical forms and the deeper layers of our being that make up who we are. It has helped me develop a subtle sense of the language of gesture and posture. In massage, this sense helps guide my therapeutic touch; in photography, it informs me of the energetic and emotional flow of the individual I am capturing.

My photography, and for that matter every waking moment of my life, is also informed by my complete adoration for my three-year-old son, Jasper. From the moment he was born, I (like many parents) would find any excuse to photograph this new being. Watching Jasper discover the world around him made the world itself an infinitely more meaningful and magical place to live. My own curiousity was once again piqued, as it was in childhood, and I began to photograph with a renewed sense of wonder.

Birth and childhood, love in all its forms: these are old stories, but somehow they never grow old to me. Every time I meet the newborn child of a woman I photographed while pregnant, I am filled with awe. That our bodies are capable of producing new life is a fact that will never cease to amaze me. That we can know each other well enough to communicate without words astounds me too.

The splendid details of life's cycles capture my eye again and again. Photography is my way to give thanks for the subtle and dynamic beauty that graces our lives.

Thank you for visiting...

Joye Barnes, Green Fuse Photography