A space you feel compelled to enter:
the art of Photographer Terry Shoulders
by Karen Reider
as it appeared in The Red Rock Review
3/15/08, Sedona, Arizona
Every once in a while, you meet someone whose joy and enthusiasm for life just bubbles right out of them.
Terry Shoulders
From his smile to the dance in his eyes, as he shows and talks about his work, the joy of Terry Shoulders is written all over his face – and all over his spectacular photography.
Shoulders has an exceptional eye for the hidden beauty of people, places, things.
And, sometimes that hidden beauty is right smack in the middle of the blatant beauty of what he is photographing. Shoulders has a knack for making the ordinary extraordinary.
“Light, shadow, imagination…… I prefer to reveal ‘another’ space,” Shoulders playfully suggests.
He explains, “It is my desire that the images I create touch you, and bring forth the beauty, the hidden, the discovery of this other space. These moments of stillness, quiet and simplicity lie within the world in which we live, and within ourselves.”
Shoulders grew up in a small farming community, in Indiana. It was lovely there, but he yearned to see the world. Shortly after high school, where he was encouraged to take business courses, he spread his wings and flew to Chicago, which he calls “the greatest city in the world!”
Once there, Shoulders attended art school and worked nights to support himself. He was born with natural artistic skills, but up to that point, had not been encouraged to develop them.
Somewhere along the way, he was noticed, and was offered a job at Jack O’Grady Art Studios. The studio was impressive, taking up the entire second story of a Chicago skyscraper. There were several rooms with designers, painters and illustrators and an entire section for photographers.
Shoulders started out in the mailroom, delivering packages.
His enthusiasm, dependability and eagerness to learn, landed him a promotion as assistant photographer in the company. Shoulders honed his skills shooting advertising photos and working in the darkroom for the next three years.
During that time, his desire for adventure was simmering in the background. Once he saved enough for basic travel, Shoulders and his wife went on a grand adventure to Europe. They landed in Germany, bought a car and a tent, and spent the next three years traveling.
His love of photography grew ever stronger as the charm of Europe ignited his passion of photographing the sublime way of life there. From cobblestone roads and tiny villages, to an elderly man on a park bench, Shoulders couldn’t put his camera down.
He loved waiting for “that right moment when perhaps a monk would walk down the street or an elderly woman pushing a cart of flowers would walk by,” Shoulders said. He finds the simple things in life charming to photograph and capture.
Once such moment happened in France. He saw an old woman, dressed in traditional black garb, completely covered head-to-foot, walking in front of a store window displaying corsets and garter belts. The contrast was magnificent.
“That’s what I really enjoy,” he said. “My work reflects this intensity and stillness. Even in the nudes I do, there is a quietness there, a sensuality that is not sexual.”
He added, “what is most important to me is not whether it is technically correct, or that the lighting is perfect for that scene, but the atmosphere that I capture the final image in.”
As an example, he told me of a time he shot a photo of White Sands, in New Mexico. It was at high noon and the sun was blindingly bright. When he printed it in the darkroom, he did it in a way that made it look like dusk. This gave the appearance of a moonscape. He never really knows what he will do in the darkroom until he gets in there - and he finds it all very inspiring.
A few months ago, Shoulders exhibited his photographs at Zelo Cosi, in Hillside Shops, in Sedona. I fell in love with his work. They spoke volumes of the man who shoots them- a reflection of Shoulders’ intensity and softness.
Over the next two decades, Shoulders ran his own business shooting for clients such as Fortune 500 companies, American Express, and United Airlines, to name a few.
His technical abilities as both a black & white and, color photographer, are only surpassed by his ability to grow in life and in his striving to continually improve.
Shoulders is working on some very exciting projects and on getting his photos in a few Sedona galleries. Along with his unique “Table Top Art,” he is formulating a plan to take people on photography expeditions to remote areas and share techniques with them.
In that contagious, enthusiastic way, he tells me, “My photography is an ongoing journey, just like life!”
Having moved from Taos, NM to Sedona, with his wife Juna, two years ago, I wondered if the red rocks had lured Shoulders to landscape photography. He told me he is more an admirer of landscape than a photographer of one. While he does shoot some landscapes, it is not his passion.
“I never felt I could capture what I see with my eyes,” he told me.
He would rather shoot more intimate images, something a visit to his Web site (terryshoulders.com) will confirm.