Artist’s Statement

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Randy getting a shot of Lost Sole #19 on a highway in Tampa. Florida. Photograph by Kevin "Grab the Rope" Hon.

In a time when everyone seems focused on the technical aspect of photography and not the artistic aspect I decided to do something unique, I wanted to expose that the subject of the photo is what is most important, I wanted to go beyond megapixels and optical zooms. I want the timeless saying that a picture is worth a thousand words to ring true again. The uniqueness of the One Shoe Diaries comes from the fact the images are not something I cannot accumulate over night. Which both frustrates me and teaches me patience, it sets the collection apart from the thousands of online photo galleries popping up everywhere. The one shoe photos are what I think of as opportunity photos. Photos where you have to be at the right place at the right time. A lot of people can get nice photos of a shoe, but can they get hundreds of unstaged lost shoes from all over the country? It takes the opportunity to travel but most of all it takes determination that borders on obsession to stop in the middle of a busy highway and get down on the ground to get the right angle for the photo.