“My Eyes”
a collection of photographs from Brad Williamson
Brad, among other things, is the founder, owner, and principal photographer for Harbor Country Photography. A member of the Professional Photographers of America and Wedding & Portrait Photographers International, Brad has been crafting photographs for over 30 years.
His first exposure to professional photography was in the late 70’s shooting weddings and stock photography in Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.
Eight years in the Navy provided the opportunity to test his eye around the globe. He served as ship’s photographer on-board SSN-680, the fast attack submarine William H. Bates. The discipline of the Navy honed his craft. Photographing the crew on liberty in exotic locations, executing the ship’s mission, conducting military exercises, and scuba diving around the Pacific and Indian Oceans, produced tens of thousands of images, not counting the ones forever classified as military secrets.
Over twenty years back in the real world, a wife and four children later, licensed to operate a nuclear power plant, president of a management design company consulting to major corporations across the nation and around the globe, advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency, are some of the responsibilities that had taken him a long way from the craft he once loved.
It took an unexpected opportunity that re-kindled the creative fire that had once burned within. Collaboration in writing movie scripts resulted in an invitation from his brother and Paladin Pictures to co-direct the full-length independent film, When Love Walks In. and later, co-produce the acclaimed documentary, Rebellion of Thought.
The challenge of coordinating both large and small casts and production crews, combined with the creative demands of crafting a visual story, were the missing pieces needed to steer Brad back to his skill with light and narrative.
Today, while you will occasionally find Brad leading an investigation at a nuclear utility, speaking at the UN, or on the pitch as a soccer referee, you will usually find him behind a camera. Film, digital, or motion picture, high on a crane, underwater or on location, what matters is that he is working with light.
He will be the first to tell you, however, that it isn’t always about what it seems to be about. In his words then…
”The word photography comes from the Greek, meaning to write with light, and while the light is important, it’s never about the light. It is about the story, the narrative, the bringing forth of what we would say. If we write with light, we do so to tell a story. To create an image that contains within its borders the beginning and the end, all the mystery and the drama, all of what we hope and what we fear, and when we are done drinking it in, leaves us yearning for more. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words…I dream of pictures that transcend millions…”
