About

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This page explains what I do and where I’m coming from. I and any artist need feedback to continue developing and flourishing. I’ve had good feedback and bad feedback. Both are useful. Please contribute your views. Fire away and let’s see where it leads us! The comment box is towards the bottom of this page. Use it!

Thanks, Karl

This Blog

I’m hoping to reach an audience interested in art, culture, photography, ethics, morality, politics and values in general. I will share my views on photography, documentaries and multimedia trends and what life as an artist is all about. I will show, or point to, samples of my art. In a way, I try to combine the writings of this blog with the rest of my art.

There will be essays on more general subjects such as Reality, Ethics and Morality and associated values. Some essays will deal with War, Violence, Politics and Religion. These subjects are crucial to me as an artist because my art is an investigation and interpretation of such values. I hope these essays will be interesting, fun and, perhaps, controversial. You’ll see a lot of images, most by me but also by others as examples.

Please use the T.O.C page for an overview of the content of this site. Many of the posts are fairly lengthy by blog standards and the T.O.C may help you find what you are interested in.

I did the design of this and my other sites. I’ve made a living as an off-again, on-again web designer for at least ten yours. At this stage, I limit my web work to the artistic segment, rather than the typical commercial work. I use bleeding edge technology: Ajax, Flex, Flash, CSS, XML, XHTML and similar mysterious “Web 2.0” stuff. WordPress, my blog host, is quite restrictive so this blog site uses quite conventional technology – CSS mainly.

Here are the main links to my portfolios:

• My Portfolios
• My Photo Blog
• My Home Site

My Personal Artist Statement

I am a professional freelance photographer and designer. I do fine art documentaries and essays. I try very hard to picture honesty in an emotional and passionate context. I often combine my images with other media – especially music – into interactive multimedia presentations. I believe strongly in the interaction of the artist, the art and the audience.

I have intense interest in the World around me. The World fascinates me in all its triumphs and downfalls, its successes and hope, its injustices, cruelties, intrigues, petty politics, corruption and plain lies. I seek order in, or at least insights into, that chaos. That is essential to my calling as a photographer and an artist.

I am not a demagogue with an agenda. I detest strict ideologies. I seek insights with as few biases as I can manage. I want that attitude to be present in my art.

I make judgments based on my own perceptions, recognizing the vulnerability of such personal views. For the record, I do not like George W. and his policies. Nor do I particularly admire the Democrats. I believe in people, not institutions. I’m not religious but believe in spirituality. I try hard to see both sides of conflicts.

I have strong feelings against war and violence, not based on politics but concern for the people unluckily involved. Many will view me as left wing but that is not the point. Truth is the point. I want that truth reflected in my art.

I aim for these essays to be relevant beyond the US where I live as do most of my readers. I want to convey an international, fair, humanitarian and honest view of important issues. I will not advocate any political, demagogic, nationalistic or revolutionary causes of any kind. My personal goal is to grow as a person and an artist.

I do not expect or hope you will agree with my views. Many of you will have radically different insights. That just proves my point that the issues I discuss are deeply personal, diverse and individual. Conflicts are natural and healthy in such an environment.

Please submit comments as you see fit.

I hope this quest and process will benefit you as it does me. I do recognize it takes quite an effort to get through these quite long essays. I thank you for any time you may choose to spend with me. That’s it

Leading Design Technology

Our technology strategy is real simple: leverage our knowledge and expertise to provide a wide range of services to a great many companies and individuals. Our expertise ranges from high tech to the time tested basics of photography, allowing us to offer a great many photographic and multimedia services.

Leading Design was founded in 1988. We combine a high tech background with both traditional and bleeding edge photography and multimedia techniques. We are equally at home in Photoshop and in traditional darkrooms. We use cameras from B+W medium format film photography to the latest digital equipment. We employ – in-house – post production facilities such as Premiere, After Effects, Audition and more, combining our product into a true multimedia experience.

Leading Design Privacy Policy

Much of our business originates from our web sites and the Internet. It’s important to understand the needs for privacy and security and our view thereof. Our approach is real simple: we neither request nor access or store any personal information on our sites.

There are no data bases, ad or spy ware in use on our other sites. No client information is accessible from the Internet. There are no dangerous ActiveX or Java components. You do not need to register or provide any information to access any part of this or any other of our sites.

Our payment system uses the services of PayPal with its industry standard payment system. We do not directly use or request any credit card information on our sites. We are photographers and artists, not security guards. We’re happy to let PayPal worry about such things. At your option and convenience, we can, of course, accept orders and credit card information over the phone or in person. That information is never accessible from the Internet.

We do not sell, distribute or share any customer information. We will never “spam” you or anyone else: client, customer, supplier and visitor or not. We will take any possible and reasonable action to ensure your complete privacy, security and safety.

Please visit our main site – you may need to turn off popup stoppers: Leading Design, Inc. If you do not wish to turn off the protection of popup stoppers, use this link: Leading Design, Inc.