A city is where people gather. The streets, buildings, sites and sights are only background. When I photograph there is a paradox in what I look for - people that are unique to me (and isn't everyone?), and yet universal somehow. The mystery of photography is evident whenever a resulting image, which I know is derived from reality (I was there!), becomes something totally fictional for me through a process I do not understand.

Finalist Prize Photo / Digital Graphics (Celeste Prize 2010)

CELESTE PRIZE 2010

Celeste Prize 2010 - final exhibition & awards in New YorkThe final exhibition and awards ceremony for the 2nd edition of Celeste Prize 2010 will take place at The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, New York between 11-13 December 2010.On 11 December the 50 artists invited to exhibit their works will vote the 40,000 €, and prizes will be given directly to the winners.Third Place:http://www.celesteprize.com/eng_1225/

FROM THE CATALOG TEXT BY MARK GISBOURNE(1)
"In another way the literal digital photographic approach without photoshop or subsequent digital manipulation is seen in a magnificently evocative photograph by Jay L. Entitled "Venice, March 2010", the work comes from a series taken in that city.. It has an immediate sense of "punctum", and the viewer is deeply touched by the young man's expectant waiting and sense of introspection. Visually in the tradition of the great post-war photographers there is a strong feeling of the incised moment about the image". (1) http://www.celesteprize.com/markgisbourne