About Nestor Gonzalez
Nestor Gonzalez’s first encounter with photography began in the mid 90’s while studying visual design in his South American homeland of Colombia. Experiencing the artform in analog before the advent of the digital camera, Gonzalez’s favorite aspect of photography was the total vanishing of time experienced in the dimly lit walls of the dark room. After treating his passion as a hobby for several years, Gonzalez emigrated to the US and decided to pursue a formal education in the world of photography, enrolling in the professional commercial photography program of Middlesex County College. He currently works as a freelance photographer for the American Heart Association in New York and New Jersey.
Gonzalez is inspired by whatever the spectrum of visible light reveals to his sight. The natural machinations of the earth, the diverse manifestations of life, and the myriad forms of human activity each contain their own special source of inspiration that animate his experience of the world. For Gonzalez, photography is a form of meditation, where the intimacy of the moment being captured enables him to contemplate the soul of a subject to expose the silent beauty within.
Many of Gonzalez’s photos on display in this exhibition are a series of images that capture the quiet personalities of manmade structures. Each building or architectural feature is a portrait that displays an identity defined not only by its intended function but also by its relationship to the environments inside and out. Taking on the aspects of those conditions and reflecting them upon itself, these otherwise silent and static structures become shapeshifting monuments to the movements of the world around them.
Artists Statement
In a broader sense what the light spectrum reveals to my sight inspires me. The changing landscape of each season, the snowflakes falling over the dry oak leafs, the sunlight touching the earth. Life in all its manifestations animates me, a seashell, a stone, a shoe, a cat, the bread placed on a table, a plant, the human body, a building, a garden, the Ocean. Witnessing the turmoil of a busy street or someone reading a book while sitting on a park bench also drives my creative process. My approach to photography is a way of contemplation and meditation, where the intimacy of the moment allows me to pierce into the soul of the subject, exposing its inner and silent beauty.
Phone: 908-578-7844
Artist Personal Website: https://njgonzalezphoto.myportfolio.com/about
Email: nestorjgonzalezn@gmail.com
