Artist and photographer Edward Hopper inspired me much more than any photographer. He showed me that that is art is often the path to unique photographs.

Every afternoon, I notice how the afternoon light creates its art in our bathroom on the ground floor.

Hopper inspired me to pay attention to the light and not allow it just to be more background images that we are so used to us never quite actually see them. His work also taught me to pay attention to the more minor things in life that people rarely photograph.

My favorite photos are of the little things we see every day but never see.

Hopper’s photographs and paintings differ from almost any others I’ve seen.

 

Hopper always saw the beauty in the ordinary, and some of the loneliness and isolation people feel. He was very much influenced by the film noir movies Hollywood was putting out in the 30s and beyond.

The above portrait of a man on the ferry is one of my favorite Hopper paintings. Although it is in color, it feels like a black and white photograph.

 

Minnie rarely leaves the back porch, but as the sun changes its position in November, she is seen increasingly sitting alone on the front porch steps, leaving Flo on the back porch.

As Minnie gets older, the sun becomes more and more important to her. Hopper’s loneliness about the photo, even though he rarely took pictures of animals or painted them.

To me, this was a Hopperish photograph.