Wayne Tarr’s Studio of Photography
I am an artist because photography gives me a way to explore—not only how the world looks, but how it feels. After nearly five decades as a professional photographer, I remain fascinated by light, movement, gesture, and the moment when something familiar becomes unexpected.
My background is rooted in portraiture, yet my work has never remained within one category. I have photographed dancers, figures underwater, flowers transformed by water and motion, sculpture within the landscape, and still-life subjects shaped by carefully controlled light. Whether I am working with a person, an object, or the natural world, I am searching for relationships: between light and shadow, strength and vulnerability, stillness and movement, reality and abstraction.
My process begins with observation. I slow down, move around the subject, change my viewpoint, and look beyond its most obvious interpretation. I use direction and quality of light, composition, selective focus, reflection, motion, water, and digital processing to move the photograph beyond simple description. Repetition is also important to me. I will return to a subject or technique many times, allowing experimentation—and an occasional accident—to become intentional.
Curiosity is at the center of everything I create. I am drawn to visual possibilities that ask me to stretch beyond what I already know. Underwater portraiture, light painting, abstraction, and unconventional ways of photographing the human form have all grown from that desire to keep exploring.
Teaching and mentoring other photographers have also shaped me as an artist. Encouraging others to look more deeply continually reminds me to do the same. I believe photography is not simply about cameras; it is about learning to see. My work reflects a lifetime of looking—and the conviction that there is always another way to see.
You can find my work at:
