Kevin Umbel Photography for me has been many things, though the one thing I’d rather not be called or labeled as is a Photographer. It does so happen that I use a camera to create my work and it is the most important physical tool used in my process, but it’s from within that my work is envisioned and brought to life. My journey with a camera started when I was in middle school. It was during a photography class that I fell in love with the process of arranging people, shapes, colors, lines, etc. into a rectangle, pressing the shutter and capturing them forever, frozen in time. My creative journey would lead me through many different subject phases and attempts to find a voice but it wasn’t until I broke free of literal and representational photography that I would find it. To describe the motivation for my work today is like riding a wave. I attempt to keep my senses open to my current surroundings and be willing to see the world through my present emotions and simply create. The idea of a destination, or leaving the house with an image in mind has been dissolved from my creative process and has been replaced with capturing feelings, shapes, colors, lines, textures; acting out of intuition with my camera as opposed to creating something we have all seen and been associated with before. When presenting my work I aspire to provoke something from within the viewer. To disarm them of their predispositions, allow them to wander their interior and get lost in the viewing. I wish to allow for the imagination to ebb and flow throughout the composition and drum up a conversation or simply leave them with a feeling previous to before. Kevin Umbel is a US-based photographer known for bold abstractions. Though the one thing he’d rather not be called or labeled as, is a photographer. It does so happen that the camera is his main tool, but it’s far from being the only tool used to create his work. Umbel’s creative journey would lead him through many different subject phases and attempts to find a voice, but it wasn’t until he broke free of literal and representational photography that he would find it. To describe the motivation behind his work today is quite simple, “it gives me purpose”, Umbel notes. Though describing the process or reasoning behind it isn’t as simple. The idea of a destination or leaving the house with an image in mind has been dissolved from his creative process and has been replaced with capturing, shapes, colours, lines, textures; wether they are to be found or created. “A recent shift in my creative process has been to incorporate painting, paper, paper folding, plaster, epoxy, etc. into my work. Many of my works are not a single image, item or creation and there may or may not be a reasoning for their combination.” Umbel notes, “I attempt to act out of intuition with whatever tool or material I’m working with and capture that with my camera, then shape it in post and finally to a print that satisfies me. I want to disarm the viewer, to strip all of their predispositions and allow them to wander their interior and get lost in the viewing. I wish to allow for their imagination to ebb and flow throughout the composition and drum up a conversation or simply leave them with a feeling previous to before.”