“From the Shadows” is a Race From the Void
An article written by Reece Bledsoe (MF Oblivion) and Interview by Mike Hogsett (m1chael) for the “From the Shadows” art collection by Ryan Crane Photography
The “From the Shadows” collection presented by Ryan Crane Photography features pieces that blur the lines between action and abstract art, showing pieces dealing with focus on the highlighted edges, and only the edges. Each piece contains photos of race cars with saturated edges of certain color spaces on the car and track, leaving what’s out of focus and in the background in the dark, provoking the subject points to really strike!
“There is something about where the light highlights the sleek lines of cars” - Ryan Crane Photography
Crane’s fascination with the highlighted edges in this collection is something quite intriguing to observe, and when thinking about the idea of highlights, this collection does a good job at showing that! This collection also does a good deal at showing how the utilization of color spaces and the absence of such can be a unique approach to creating subjects in art! The absence of color in most of the space provokes a sense of mystery and deep focus, and the areas of color and vibrancy entail a more clear vision of the direction that crane was taking with each piece. These photos exhibit an atmosphere that feels like fast-moving, lucid dreams in abstraction. Each canvas holds a much different energy from the next, and the more time going from front to the back of the collection, you’ll start to observe the fluidity of the subjects, which makes us question whether it was even created from a picture initially or if these were almost drawn interpretations of memories of those sights. Pictured below are pieces “64” and “88”, both having a reminiscent atmosphere to each other, but containing different focus points that bring a continuous movement to the collection.
This recently created art collection contains thirteen different original canvases that were captured and created by ryan crane photography, available for purchase and viewing on his website now! This collection differs from the styles portrayed in any other previous release from crane, giving it a more prominent and relevant imprint in the history of his work. Ryan crane races outside the boundaries of creative expression with his photography, and has released many astounding works for the public that continue to push the norm for the way things can be observed and seen, bringing attention to positions and perspectives we’ve never thought to view from! With newer photography being so oversaturated with simple flower pictures and nature shots, it’s refreshing to see new creators coming with an original and thought-out vision with every round of shots they release! Crane’s work has an abstract impact and provides a clear, impressive lens to view from, really emphasizing the beauty in those moments we lose in the blink of an eye. The sudden and abrupt moments captured by crane show the patience and care put into his art, which has produced an eclectic portfolio with the styles of photography he’s continuing to discover and experiment with! Give his work a scope and support the artist directly from his website and be sure to keep scrolling to check out the interview we conducted directly with Ryan.
Written and Observed by MF Oblivion — Endorsed by lifetimereserve.co
Interview by Mike Hogsett (m1chael)
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Tell us about yourself. Are you an artist/musician, or something else?
I’m a photographer, artist, designer and most recently a cancer survivor.
What’s unique about your work?
I think my answer is the way I see things. Most often we hear people talk about their battle with cancer. But i can tell you two things – the first is that i knew from the start i wasn’t going to lose. The second is something i learned over the course of these past years. Cancer isn’t a battle, it’s an adventure. It really is like in the movies the greatest adventures are dangerous and you might not make it out alive. However the hero often survives due to their resolve. I am trying to combine this with one of my earliest lessons i learned from my photography which was that there is beauty all around us that we often miss. When is the last time you looked up during your trip to work and took note of the beautiful sunrise/sunset? The moon rising from behind buildings? A reflection in a puddle of water? I guess it’s true that we really do need to stop and smell the roses. & i hope to show that to people so they will stop and smell the roses around their lives.
So in a sense, you think something negative like cancer, can be a positive thing in your life because it has forced you to live more in the moment?
Yes and no. It’s pretty easy to be negative from something like cancer. I mean let’s be honest, cancer sucks. Anyone can focus on the bad stuff. I try to use what i have learned from my adventure to do good and help others who have to go on their own cancer adventure. To the can it be positive part of the question, yes. However, it is less carpe diem, and more about helping others with the knowledge i now have acquired from completing my adventure.
I think photography has been more of the live in moment tool. Most people don’t even notice how beautiful the scenery around them is. In fact they usually need a vacation as permission to stop, relax, and look around. Cancer, as hard as it was with the set-backs and all, has allowed me to understand and be there for others who have gone through or are presently going through cancer.
You speak a bit about cancer being an adventure and relate it to the hero’s journey. In all the stories there’s something the hero must survive or defeat and its the act of triumphing over it that makes the hero come back a changed man or woman… So in this case cancer is a bit like the dragon you had to go out and sleigh before you could come back with new perspectives… ? Some people say the myths in the stories and movies can represent the unconscious mind, do you see any unconscious themes unraveling into your work after going through this “adventure”?
I call cancer an adventure. It is not a dragon, instead it’s a dangerous journey with the goal of making it to the treasure, the treasure being life. It has ups and downs(a personal example was after my first round of chemo and radiation i went in for surgery and when i woke up i noticed i had not been cut open which immediately made me anxious and worried, why did i not receive the surgery? What went wrong? Then i saw some of my family who told me i didn’t need it, that i had already won. This wasn’t the case and i was back under the knife a week later. The dr noticed huge improvement and wanted to do more tests because it would have been ideal if we could have avoided surgery. So you can see how, even in the course of one day, there were so many ups and downs. It challenges you, it’s different for everyone yet there are shared similarities that we, those of us who have traveled that same road, can help each other navigate through. I remember thinking about time. This is where my perspective on life changed. I remember being home thinking about my first stay at the hospital from my first surgery. I was supposed to be home after two days. I was there for a year. That’s not actually true but i perceived it that way. My two day visit turned into eight, and the first three were the most painful days of my life. I had an allergic reaction to something that was causing havoc on my body. Those eight days seemed like an eternity, i honestly felt like i was in the hospital for an entire year. While i thought about all of this i realized that everything we go through in our lives is but a fleeting moment. No matter how bad a situation is, no matter how much pain you feel or how hard something is, once you get to the other side, once you get through it, it will be nothing more than a fleeting moment. When i picked up a camera and started to show people what they were missing out on in their own backyard it felt great but as time progressed i began chasing the business and i started www.photoprofessors.com and i basically forgot the lesson i spent so much time trying to show others. Just stop, and look around. I think this adventure reminded me of that… And just to reiterate, i felt like i was in the hospital for a year. I’m not exaggerating for the story. It actually makes a little sense, the amount of pain i was in kept me from sleeping. I was awake for every shift change of the nurses. So it makes a little bit of sense in that every shift was like a day so every day felt like three. The pain slowed everything down but as I look back at the experience i remember a few things but in the end it was nothing more than a fleeting moment in time.
What does your photoprossors.com creation entail?
I wanted to have my Disney artwork licensed by Disney. I removed all of the theme park based artworks while pursuing the licensing. That was a process, and a ton of emails, so I needed to do more. I designed a website where myself and 4 other very well known photographers, each with their own specialization, shared videos we put together to teach subscribers what we do and how we do it. The website was photoprofessors.com.
Unfortunately, when I was diagnosed with cancer and ended up unable to work i had to shutdown the site along with my other photography website. I could not afford them.
The website i have now is very special. Squarespace helped me out huge with my present website and i will never be able to thank them enough. If it wasn’t for SquareSpace I would not have www.ryancranephotography.com.
Why did you title the series “from the shadows”? Does the title have any connection to your adventure with cancer? I’ve personally never seen a series of cars photographed or edited in lighting like this… Did your journey influence some perspective here with this creation?
Unfortunately it was not influenced by my cancer adventure. I was searching for some way to help the car enthusiast be able to hang automotive art in their home with acceptance/permission from their wife or their significant other. I was inspired by a really bad photograph i took many years ago. The idea was fairly basic, simple if you will, to only show the absolute brightest part of each vehicle.
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