I’m Phil. I’m a self-taught photographer, and I live in Columbus, Ohio.
My life of creating visual art with photography started with my maternal grandfather, who was a semi-professional photographer. He lived in the area of Northwest Indiana known as “The Region,” and worked in a print shop in Chicago. He would ride the South Shore train to work every day from their Cape Cod in Munster. His Name was Bob Martz.
Grandpa Martz was, of course, before the era of digital photography. He shot exclusively with a twin-lens reflex, mostly in black and white, and did his own developing and printing in a converted closet under the second-story eaves of 9041 Revere Court. You might think that I’m telling someone else’s story, but it’s actually my own, for just about everything he did with photography fascinated me. He was the one that rode the train one day with me and my father into the loop to buy my first TLR. He also taught me how to develop my own film (a skill which I have long since lost).
Grandpa had a great love for photographing architecture, and he had plenty of subject matter in the windy city. I have since inherited the bulk of his printed work (he passed in 1982), and much of it is depictions of commercial structures in abstract form. Undoubtedly this had an impact on me from an early age.
My interest in photography continued off and on over the years, reincarnated through various tools, but an important turning point occurred when I asked my friend Claudia about making a purchase of a digital SLR in 2009. It was then that I began to shoot with greater frequency and intent. The summer of 2017 was when things really accelerated for me, as I began to take long walks through the streets and alleys of the South End, photographing literally everything and anything I saw, except for people, who would be my subject on rare occasions. It was at this point that I felt as though I had something to say with this work that could not be expressed in any other way. I invited my friend Ralph, who had done a lot of curation of commercial spaces, to look at somewhere between fifty and one hundred images (I don’t remember exactly), and simply asked him if he thought I could “do something with it.” He responded positively without hesitation. It was that pivotal moment that catapulted me into what would become the heart of my work, the simple observation of everyday ordinary things, with the intent of drawing attention to their beauty.
Since then, innumerable people have encouraged me to continue this deeply important spiritual practice, but I will always remember that Ralph gave me permission to do the work, and I would venture to say that no other single moment has been more crucial.
I’m Phil. I’m a self-taught photographer, and I live in Columbus, Ohio.
My life of creating visual art with photography started with my maternal grandfather, who was a semi-professional photographer. He lived in the area of Northwest Indiana known as “The Region,” and worked in a print shop in Chicago. He would ride the South Shore train to work every day from their Cape Cod in Munster. His Name was Bob Martz.
Grandpa Martz was, of course, before the era of digital photography. He shot exclusively with a twin-lens reflex, mostly in black and white, and did his own developing and printing in a converted closet under the second-story eaves of 9041 Revere Court. You might think that I’m telling someone else’s story, but it’s actually my own, for just about everything he did with photography fascinated me. He was the one that rode the train one day with me and my father into the loop to buy my first TLR. He also taught me how to develop my own film (a skill which I have long since lost).
Grandpa had a great love for photographing architecture, and he had plenty of subject matter in the windy city. I have since inherited the bulk of his printed work (he passed in 1982), and much of it is depictions of commercial structures in abstract form. Undoubtedly this had an impact on me from an early age.
My interest in photography continued off and on over the years, reincarnated through various tools, but an important turning point occurred when I asked my friend Claudia about making a purchase of a digital SLR in 2009. It was then that I began to shoot with greater frequency and intent. The summer of 2017 was when things really accelerated for me, as I began to take long walks through the streets and alleys of the South End, photographing literally everything and anything I saw, except for people, who would be my subject on rare occasions. It was at this point that I felt as though I had something to say with this work that could not be expressed in any other way. I invited my friend Ralph, who had done a lot of curation of commercial spaces, to look at somewhere between fifty and one hundred images (I don’t remember exactly), and simply asked him if he thought I could “do something with it.” He responded positively without hesitation. It was that pivotal moment that catapulted me into what would become the heart of my work, the simple observation of everyday ordinary things, with the intent of drawing attention to their beauty.
Since then, innumerable people have encouraged me to continue this deeply important spiritual practice, but I will always remember that Ralph gave me permission to do the work, and I would venture to say that no other single moment has been more crucial.