Research has shown that photographic art displaying easily recognizable natural imagery creates an environment that reduces stress, increases productivity and aids in emotional and physical processes. By incorporating visual distractions that are subtle and uplifting, one can achieve a sense of well being and control over intense, and sometimes unfamiliar, environments. Pursuant to these ideas, Recent Developments was founded by Cheryl Hrudka and Stan Johnson in 1998. In the years since, Cheryl and Stan have expanded their more traditional purview of photography to include architecture, street photography, portraiture and abstracts.
Cheryl L. Hrudka
My recent work has evolved from “out there” to “in here”. Each of my new works take an increasing interest in the everyday objects that people see, but don’t really assimilate them as they walk by.
The details of a leaf, the veins in a person’s hands, graffiti, or condensation on a window … these all have their own beauty and allow the viewer to participate as they interpret the image. This is what led me to the infinite possibilities of abstraction. Not strangely, the abstractions retain the intimacy of previous work. Again the invitation is tantamount. The viewer’s conclusions are never threatened, but respected and allowed to prosper. On these mandalas, we each transpose our own version of events, our own stories.
Stan Johnson
Digital art’s nearest living relative is photography. Both have been spawned by the Industrial Revolution, hence the comparison.
From photography’s beginnings in 1839 until Steichen’s exhibition “The Family of Man” (circa 1955), four generations of photographers labored in virtual obscurity. Photography was the step child of the plastic arts, hardly acknowledged, let alone accepted. Two more generations passed before it was allowed in the “family” picture.