About Me

Layne Ryan Fenimore

I am a 37 year-old Marine combat veteran and amateur photographer. I was born and raised in Bradenton, Florida, but I've lived in several states and countries, over the years. Light fascinates me, and for the last 13 years, I've continuously tried to further my understanding of how perception of light can be manipulated. I'm revealing my first body of fine art to the public with my "Pareidolia" series. Starting in December, 2018, I spent just over a hundred consecutive days shooting. I was slowly fleshing out concepts, and building a body of work The process involves liquid, glass, vinyl and metal surfaces to capture reflections. Each style is very different in execution, but quite similar in concept. The newest addition to "Pareidolia" is my Glass Project. This began in early 2020, involving a curiosity with different kinds of glass, and their prismatic properties. After 6 months of narrowing the cloud of thoughts and ideas into a solid concept, I began searching for a glass artist to create, in their own style, pieces that I would then photograph. I found Melanie Cech, and saw that her style, textures and understanding of flowing surfaces made her the ideal artist to commission.

I've built an inventory of tricks and methods to achieve a sometimes unnatural look with something quite ordinary. I seek to show my audience images that they wouldn't have thought possible without extensive post processing. All of my work is minimally edited. I utilize techniques, props, and practical effects to achieve the look of each image. Aside from the adjustments required for any standard RAW edit, and conversion to JPEG format, post processing is an afterthought. I do not draw, erase, mask, highlight, or otherwise manipulate these photos. However, many of them are slightly cropped in order to hide techniques. All photos are single exposure. No composites.
I began with photoshop, initially, but it felt like cheating, so I forced myself to be more creative. I knew that there had to be ways to get colors to look extreme, edges and contrast from organic sources, and real abstraction without blowing out or heavily modifying a photo. "Get it to look like it does in the camera" was the motto.

Apophenia
"Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. The term was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia. He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections [accompanied by] a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".- Wikipedia

"Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, seeing faces in inanimate objects, or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit." - Wikipedia

This is how I see the world. It compels my photography.

Not all of my audience will experience pareidolia. Ive tried to make my abstract photography beautiful, although admittedly weird, so that a neutral audience might find aesthetic value, also. Most of my photos can be viewed in any 90 or 180 degree orientation, as the visuals are abstract, and rotating the photo serves to reset the brain's interpretation. Some photos are best viewed in a specific orientation, in my personal preference.

See what you want.