News Release

The University of Findlay
Fine Arts Department

Commercial photographer and lecture of photography at The University of Findlay Jeff L. Salisbury is now showing, “Bits & Pieces” at the Lea Gallery in the Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion.   On the campus of The University of Findlay. The show is free and open to the public Monday thru Saturday 8:00 to 8:00 and Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Jeff has been a commercial photographer since 1976 when he started
Jeff Salisbury Photo Illustration.  For the past 7 years he has taught at The University of Findlay.  He is married to Diana and they have three children, Lee, Audra, and Colin.    A graduate of Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky with a BS in business and a minor in English and currently working on his master in liberal arts.   Outside interest range from being a board member of Van Buren Local Schools in Van Buren, Ohio, sub teacher, bus driver, soccer coach, and noodle cooker at the Van Buren Music Booster tent at the Hancock County Fair, just to mention a few.
The show consists of various works that Jeff has taken since his college days at Morehead State.    Jeff’s work is primarily commercial, but also has an artist look.  What is art to one might not be art to the next.  When does a snap shot become art?  Why do people view some photos are art and others do not?  How does one “see” a photo, with the eye or the mind?  Bottom line is that if you like your photo on your wall, enjoy, if one goes to sell that photo, it is a different ballgame.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ART IS IN THE MIND OF THE BEHOLDER
Photography has been important in my life, since I was sixteen when my father gave me his Argus C3 camera.  Most of my teenage years were spent experimenting with the technical ways a camera works.  When applying for admissions at Kentucky’s Morehead State University, I was diverted from a counselor’s comment that I had to be in the Communication, Industrial Arts, or the Fine Arts departments to be eligible for a photography class.  At that time, advisors believed that a student’s major should be the main interest of study.  For that reason, I became a business major, for the purpose of managing a business, but I also wanted to learn the real craft that would be my profession someday, photography.
After graduating in 1973, I started my own commercial photography studio, Jeff Salisbury Photo Illustration.  I experienced some of the same barriers that I first encountered in college many years ago.  As a working photographer, I discovered that photography is not really thought of as an art form.  One person thinks a photograph is a work of art and another does not.  Over the years, as I observed people’s reactions to my photography, which I thought of as an artistic enterprise, I began to ask, “Why don’t people consider photography as a form of art?”
After four years as an adjunct professor of photography, I began to pursue questions that have been on my mind for a long time.  Does one really see an image, the final product with one’s eyes, or is one’s vision just a means to get the image to the brain?  If seeing is only a mental process, then the brain might be considered the real place where one “sees” the world.  Thus, it is important to investigate and understand how this process takes place in the “seeing mind.”
Could the process of artistic “seeing” have more to do with psychology (the science of mental processes and behaviors) than art (aesthetic expressions of the imagination)?  After investigating and researching this question, I now contend that photographs are art, and the way we see art is not really with our eyes but with our minds.  This paper will address these issues.  How does one know what art actually is?  Additionally, if one views photography, how does one know it is art?  The ultimate goal of this paper is to understand how people “see” and how they “process” visual information as art?  It is my belief that art is seen with the mind, not the eye; and, therefore, photographic art is in the mind of the beholder.  This thesis paper will explore how “seeing” photography occurs as both a mental process and an aesthetic experience.
As I investigate this thesis, I hope to understand and clarify some of the assumptions about photography that I have made over the years.  One assumption is that the eyes are like a camera; they simply record what they see.  Another assumption is that the brain is used to process images.  Thus, each individual’s brain decides whether the photograph is a work of art or not.  Since people “see” with their brain, the structure of the brain holds the key to the way they “see” a photograph.  The third assumption is that the camera is doing most of the creative work.  People purchase expensive photographic equipment because they feel that they will take better pictures.  This paper will explore an additional question: is technology the creative force or is it the brain?  In the final analysis
I expect to understand why people do not view photography or art in the same way.