Featured Artist Marc Jaffe

Artist Marc Jaffe shares a boldly colorful and intriguing collection of abstract digital photography. Discover more of his work by visiting his website.

 

 

A photograph is a moment in time, it’s what you do with it that matters.

 

 

I’ve been connected to photography since I was a kid. My dad was a commercial photographer; he was one of the original “Mad Men” in New York City working with the advertising agencies for 20 years. He was also an abstract painter and sculptor since the late 1950s. He passed away in September, 2023. See his work here. I am representing what’s left of his collection.

 

 

Growing up around his work and creativity had a huge influence on me. I always had a camera in my hands, and taking photos just became second nature.

 

 

After studying advertising at Art Center College of Design, I worked in ad agencies doing paste-up, design, and operating stat cameras, fine tuning the technical aspect of graphic arts.

 

 

In the mid-80s, I was working in photo labs in Westchester County, where I became a master black-and-white printer. That led me to open my own full service commercial photo lab and photo studio in 1988. It was a great time. Ten years of blending creativity with technical skill, before digital photography came along and changed everything.

 

 

Since then, I’ve continued to shoot as a fine art photographer while also offering creative and tech services to support myself. I always shoot in raw format to give myself the most flexibility when editing. Over time, I’ve built up a set of go-to tools and styles in my “digital lab”. While I’ve created lots of different “recipes,” I usually return to a few I’ve fine-tuned that let me get the kind of bold, stripped-down tones I love.

 

 

Currently I have three ongoing series: Under the Bridge, NightShots and DayShots. I use a Fujifilm X-T30 II with a 16mm lens. NightShots and Under The Bridges the images are lit only using the built-in pop-up flash.

 

 

The series I have here is Under the Bridge. For the past number of years, I’ve been shooting from a moving car at night—through the sunroof, without looking through the camera. It’s a very spontaneous, hit-or-miss process, but that’s part of what makes it exciting. Some shots are sharp and striking, while others are off-center or only catch a piece of a bridge. I used to toss out the “mistakes,” but not anymore. Those odd, imperfect images often hold something real—motion, mood, mystery.

 

 

Photography, for me, is still about catching a feeling in a moment. Not every photo has to be clean or perfect. Sometimes the rough edges are what make it work.

 

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