Michael Moore

Photographer

Portrait © Donna Granata 1991

From The Universal Landscape: Michael Moore Artist Statement

The Universal Landscape is a document in progress, a constantly expanding definition of how I interact with the land. My photographs are not the final product of my adventure, but merely the vehicle for my explorations, and a diary of personal discovery. Each image is another step in the journey toward understanding my relationship with the natural world. The individual prints are both independent and contingent; alone they are intimate studies of nature’s elements, together they form a document of nature’s complexity and diversity. Taken any way, they reflect my passion for discovery.

Throughout my far-flung travels I have found distant lands to be not so different from places close to home. Along the way I have determined that the unique and extraordinary is at the same time the ordinary and the universal. I have discovered a common body of textures, colors and forms – a visual language of global equivalence. This language transcends the spatial and temporal borders of man and speaks to me in the tongue of ancient time.

By learning and speaking this visual language of nature, I hope to gain empathy for not only nature’s sublimity, but also her distress. I want to step away from the eyes of modern man and look at the world from the perspective that a stone, a tree, a rock might have. I want to establish a visceral connection with the raw, dynamic elements of the earth. Such a connection will yield at the least a heightened sensitivity; ideally it will engender a sincere appreciation of our earthly home. It is my hope that this connection is not confined only to me, but that my photographs might compel others to examine their relationship to nature. I wish to link the soul of the viewer to the soul of the land.  Moore received his AA degree from Ventura College and Bachelor of Science from Brooks Institute of Photography.  From 1991 to 1996, Moore was involved with marketing and curating exhibitions for Brooks Institute of Photography.

Michael Moore’s documentation took place in 1997. The FOTM Archive contains extensive information about this artist.