Kent Westbrook is a Landscape Photographer based in Maryland and Texas, and capturing images wherever he can.

 

My itch to create imagery began as a kid, when I saw a documentary program about Ansel Adams during which the master related the urge to pull off the road one night in New Mexico because a scene had struck his eye. He had to get up on top of his vehicle to make the photograph; the result was Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, an image that, to this day, blows me away. That led me to his classic image of the Snake River winding toward the Tetons, and his Yosemite imagery. Those images made me realize photography could be more than just family snapshots, that it could graduate to art, presenting scenes that could strike emotion and awe in the viewer.

Years later, in college, with an elective to burn, I took an actual photography class with one of my best friends. Digital wasn’t even a pipe dream then; I photographed using slide film and a rangefinder camera that belonged to my Dad; don’t even remember the make. We learned all of the basics in that course, but what stuck with me was our instructor’s emphasis on composition and the artistic aspect of photography. I always wanted to be able to create that one-of-a-kind image, an iconic shot that people would remember. I’ve not yet and may never achieve that, but the pleasure remains in the attempting of it.

Why One Good Eye? Lost an eye in a childhood accident, yeah, that’s a tragedy. But it’s a gift too, because without that accident I probably wouldn’t see the world the way I do.