Teri Talpe

Twelve O'Clock, photograph

Francis M. Kipp Award for Creativity

My interest in photography started with a photography class from a high school biology teacher. Through this medium I found a satisfying combination of creativity, technology, and imagination all rooted in the real world. I’ve always been drawn to the essentials of contrasts, shadow, lines, a suggestion of movement and abstracts—so color seems to be a distraction which is why black/white works better for me.

This photo of a man and child on a beach was one of those “stumble upon moments” that I enjoy so much. I watched them play with their shadows on this cold and empty beach on a winter morning in Brittany, France. The child was not grasping what the man wanted him to do with his arms. I liked being a silent witness to their own creativity, the man’s patience, the child’s curiosity and their final moment of jubilee when their shadows were aligned.
Taken at Saint-Brieuc-sur-mer, January 2009