Excerpt from 15×100 Member Profile: Laura Boston-Thek

Why do you take pictures?
Because I must…it is like a disease for me not unlike alcoholism or
drug abuse….I shoot because I can’t stop shooting. There is just so
many amazing things to capture, and life and nature are constantly
changing. It is the subtleties that attract me, the way the light
folds around a tree that I see each day, when on this particular day,
it captures my attention. It demands my rapt attention.

What has impacted your visual style?
I would have to say my family history. Some families have Doctors or
Lawyers in them….mine, as far back as is recorded…have been
artistically driven. I joke that we have inherited the gene for
composition. It just seems so natural to us.

How did you learn to see?
It was my mother who first taught me to see light and beauty in the
world around me…and to develop my imagination. Being a painter
herself she had one particular painting she had done, of a thatched
roof cottage in a typically English garden, surrounded by a dense
wood. In mornings after my father went to work and my brother to
school…I would crawl into my mother’s bed and together we would sip
an imaginary tea that would shrink us down so we could frolic inside
this amazing landscape together…discovering all it’s textures and
magic hidden with in. It is those special moments in childhood that
train our brains how to view life.

In your world is photography mechanical or philosophical?
I guess philosophical, but I don’t think of it in those terms. I use
photography and in that sense Art, as a kind of medicine for my
soul. I believe you create the world around you by the filter you
view it through…so I am alway searching for the perfect light or the
perfect perspective to help illuminate me. When things get out of
control around me, I know I can always create that special magical
world I enjoyed when I was a little girl..through my lens or on the
smooth surface of my canvas.

What is your favorite 15×100 image?
THAT is an impossible question to answer…as the work here in 15×100
is constantly developing and growing as are the artists represented
here. Each day I find I have a new favorite…actually I discover a
new favorite with each viewing. It is too diverse a group to pick
just one.

Who is your favorite 15×100 photographer? Why?
Oh, man, that is one tough question. I am just starting to
familiarize myself with many of the talented people here at 15×100.
Some I think of as old friends, but many are just waiting to be
discovered. I have drawn so much inspiration from so many here and I
always carry around in my head their different approaches to
photography. When I am in the field and stuck, unable to think of a
new way to shoot something I think…how would Matt or Maria shoot
this…or perhaps I see ice forms in a puddle and think…how would
the Charles approach this with his amazing eye for the abstract.
Rory’s love of rustic shacks has always made me go back and shoot a
few extra varied angles while walking the vineyards. Michael Van Der
Tol’s texture rich imagery inspired me to bring my two creative halves
together in my imagery. A marriage of painting and photography.
More than once I have attempted the spontaneous work created by Joe
Rotindo. Paul Collins has never stopped being an inspiration and a
guide to me on my journey. How can anyone pick just one?
How did you select your 15 images?
It was a hard process, but I wanted the work to be “fresh baked” as it
were. To be representative of what my eye was tracking at the moment
the gallery was conceived. I hope to keep updating the gallery
monthly, with each season or new experience inspiring the work.

What guides you?
My heart, is my true guide. I try to shoot when I feel this sort of
tug in my heart. I literally many times make an audible nose or have
a tear on my cheek when I press the shutter button….then I know I
have caught the energy of that moment. That is when I know I captured
something special.

Check out many more amazing photographers at: http://blog.15×100.com/