Clint Saunders

While most photographers attempt to capture parts of our world, Clint Saunders uses his camera like a pencil to create new environments. Though he abandoned his training in drawing to pursue photography, the North Dakota-based artist, currently pursuing an MFA in San Francisco, has retained many sensibilities of the former medium. Using his original digital photographs like elements in a collage, Saunders distorts, manipulates and reinterprets shapes, colors and, above all, light, to open up stunning new vistas.

Some of his works resemble still lifes, with small objects and details refracted or pieced together in a manner that evokes the multiple perspectives of Cubism. Elsewhere, Saunders picks his own photographs apart and fuses the pieces into magical, unrecognizable landscapes. In some of these new hybrid environments a mood of calm tranquility emanates from harmonious compositions, while others are practically electric with the dynamism of disparate parts and sharp edges coming together more or less smoothly. Saunders is a visual composer, merging different tones and rhythms into stunning movements.