LOOKING AT THE WORLD

Photography allows me to capture moments that would otherwise pass unnoticed. These moments are not unlike those on a stage, in a concert hall, or within an operatic duet or theatrical monologue. They hold more than people alone. They contain intention, light, shape, and form, all converging briefly before moving on.

I am drawn to moments of presence rather than spectacle. A pause between gestures, the way light settles across a space, the quiet tension that exists before something resolves. Like performance, these moments are shaped by time and attention. Once missed, they cannot be recreated in the same way again.

Photography gives me a way to stay with these moments. It sharpens how I observe and how I listen, not only to what is visible, but to what is implied. This practice informs how I engage with creative work, organizations, and people. Photography is where intention, observation, and experience meet, and where I continue to practice seeing with care.

PROJECTS & SERIES

Lines of Sight
An ongoing exploration of how people relate to space, structure, and one another. This series focuses on moments where attention aligns briefly, revealing relationships between foreground and background, presence and absence.

Between the Acts
Photographs made in the quiet spaces between events. Streets before they fill, stages before performance, gestures before resolution. This work is interested in anticipation, pause, and the tension that exists just before something begins or ends.

Places That Hold Us
A study of environments shaped by human use and memory. Rather than documenting landmarks, this series looks at how light, wear, and arrangement reveal the lives that pass through a place over time.

Travel as Observation
Photographs made while moving through unfamiliar places. This work is less about destination and more about attention, noticing how routine, ritual, and rhythm persist across cultures and contexts.

Photography is one way I stay in conversation with place, time, and attention. It sits alongside my writing, teaching, and professional work as a practice of observation rather than conclusion. The questions that guide this work continue to evolve as I move through different landscapes and moments.

This page reflects an ongoing practice. I return to it over time, adding, revisiting, and refining as the work itself unfolds. To see more of my work join me on my portfolio site at Kevin Patterson Portfolio.

My photographic practice is grounded in attention and restraint. I am interested in moments that hold more than they reveal at first glance, moments shaped by time, use, and memory. I do not approach photography as a way to capture events, but as a way to recognize when a place, object, or figure is already carrying meaning.

Much of my work focuses on environments that bear the marks of human presence. Weathered boats, worn stone, public monuments, empty chairs, and transitional spaces appear often in my photographs. These are not symbols chosen in advance, but elements encountered through walking, waiting, and returning. I am drawn to how light settles on these forms and how composition can quietly suggest history, labor, loss, or continuity without explanation.

I work slowly and deliberately. I prefer to revisit places rather than move quickly through them, allowing familiarity to sharpen perception. This practice mirrors performance and music, where timing, stillness, and attention shape meaning as much as action. Like a monologue or duet, a photograph holds a moment that cannot be repeated in the same way again. The work is to be present when it occurs.

Composition is central to how I see. Foreground and background, negative space, balance, and line are not decorative choices but structural ones. They determine how an image is entered and how long it is held. I am attentive to how viewers move through a photograph, what arrests them, and what remains unresolved.

Editing is as important as making the image. Not every photograph needs to be shown. Selection is an act of care, a way of allowing certain moments to speak while letting others remain private. What remains is work that values quiet, patience, and respect for the places and stories it encounters.