Jack Brady
Shadows Dancing
Chapel Hill, NC this February 1, 2018
Visuals that have manifested before me and have been captured by the click of my cameras shutter to share.
Many of us find peace and serenity when we are immersed in the beauty of Nature. Whether alone in the deep forest, lying on the sand staring up at the ever changing clouds before you, or perched on a rock beside a cascade of water falling from high above, Nature is Alive!
To present before you scenes from Nature that elicited an emotion at the moment in time before me is my mission, and the camera is my tool of choice.
Fortunate to have traveled the World, always with my camera at my side, has been one of the gifts in my life. Whether on a business trip, or a true adventure with no agenda other than to immerse myself in the beauty of a given topography, the camera is how I try to convey what I felt, and to hopefully elicit a like feeling within you.
As you may notice during a review of my images found here, I am particularly drawn to Clouds, the Sea and Shadows. The rays cast by the sun through the clouds at sea after a storm or in a remote wilderness location are just one of the beauties of Nature I feel we all can sense and appreciate. The flow of water across the earth, as a creek in the forest or the falls from on high, here you can sense not only the interplay of light in the scene but possibly hear the sound of the water as it trickles or falls before you.
Yet there are times where just a shadow cast upon a wall in a room gives a sense of peace to each of us, if we just stop for a moment and choose to live in the beauty of that instant.
Such is my inspiration to share just a little of what I have seen with each of you. I hope my efforts solicit a hunger within yourself to Explore.
About "Shadows Dancing:
Some through years I spent inside the developing world of "computer visualization, digital imaging, computer graphics, and the technologies that helped change how images could be created, studied, printed, animated, and shared.
But the images gathered here come from a quieter place.
They are not demonstrations of technology. They are not presented as products first. They are moments I noticed, felt, and tried to preserve before they vanished.
Shadows Dancing began as a simple act of seeing, feeling what my Soul saw, not just the optics of my mind.
A shaft of light after a storm. Clouds opening above the sea. Water moving through stone. A forest path held in stillness. A shadow crossing a wall with more grace than anyone could have arranged.
These are brief moments. Most pass unnoticed. A camera, at its best, allows us to pause beside them a little longer.
Nature has always carried a common language for me, I reflected what I witnessed, sensed, smell, encapsulate within. And in my mind, Nature reflected me.
In forests, along coastlines, in mountains, near falling water, or under a changing sky, there is a stillness that is not empty. It is alive. It does not shout. It waits for us to slow down enough to receive it.
The photographs on this site are my attempt to share some of those encounters.
I have been fortunate to travel widely, both through work and through personal exploration. Wherever I went, my camera was always at my side. Sometimes the setting was remote and grand. Sometimes it was ordinary and nearly missed. Over time, I found myself drawn again and again to clouds, the sea, water, light, and shadow — not simply as subjects, but as carriers of feeling, reflections again of "self".
A photograph succeeds for me when it does more than show what was there. It should invite the viewer to feel something of what was present in that moment: peace, solitude, wonder, memory, longing, or perhaps only the desire to look again.
That is the spirit of Shadows Dancing as I conceived Her, and I see Her.
I do not offer these images to become the product. I offer them as traces — evidence of places, moments, and emotions that passed before me and asked to be noticed.
My hope is that, somewhere in these pages, you may find an image that causes you to pause, breathe, remember, or explore.
Thank you for spending time here.
— Jack Brady
About "Seeking, To Be Found" ©:
For a time, my poetry and images lived together within Shadows Dancing. Eventually, that work became its own book and its own place.
Seeking, To Be Found is a collection of words and images drawn from moments in life that required expression. In creating my book, I was amazed as I created the writing onto the left side of the spread, ALWAYS an image that carried the same visual "words" came to me!
Some pieces were written from joy. Some from grief. Some from solitude. Some from bewilderment. Others came from places I would not wish another person to know, though many eventually do.
The title itself matters to me. The comma is not accidental. It holds the pause between seeking and being found.
Each poem is paired with an image, not as decoration, but as a compliment carrying the same essence. The intent is not to explain a feeling, but to create enough space for the reader to encounter one.
Some writings may bring comfort. Some may bring a tear. Some may leave the reader uncertain at first. What each person feels will depend partly on what they have lived, and partly on whether I succeeded in carrying the original emotion into words.
The book was published in March 2021 and may be reviewed at:
Of all the writings in that collection, one remains especially important to me: “Ashes”©. I believe it touches something central to the human experience — loss, memory, and what remains after the fire has passed.
Thank you for any time you spend with these works.
I welcome your thoughts, comments, and prayers.
My Technical Background:
For visitors interested in the technical side of my life, much of my professional career was spent at the intersection of photography, computer graphics, digital imaging, visualization, 3-D animation, simulation, virtual reality, augmented reality, prepress, research, and medical imaging.
From 1983 through January 2004, I was President and Founder of Southeastern Digital Images, Inc., and its software division, C/Food Software, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
The company operated as a value-added reseller, software developer, and technical consulting firm during a period when high-end digital imaging and computer visualization were still being written, defined, and tested in real time. Much of that work was built around Silicon Graphics and Cray supercomputer platforms, long before such visual power became common on ordinary desktop machines.
I do not claim to have invented the age of computer visualization, but I was fortunate to contribute a few pages to its library during the years when the field was still young.
My work was first "concept" of what woud become a software application, then included sales direction, product evaluation, more software conception, user-interface design, C++ development direction, and marketing of proprietary software used to control digital film recorders and high-resolution scanners on the Silicon Graphics / Cray IRIX platform.
Clients and technology relationships included Tri-Star Pictures, Columbia Pictures, the FBI, CIA, NSA, found place in the the Pentagon, United States military, CDC, Mayo Clinic, Mercedes-Benz in Germany, IBM, Intel, Truevision, AT&T/GSL, Silicon Graphics, Kodak Digital, Scitex, Thomson Digital Images, Nikon, Hasselblad, Pixar, Eikonics, and others involved in advanced imaging, graphics, and visualization.
Southeastern Digital Images was a Silicon Graphics Authorized Power Series VAR and Software Developer. It also became the only VAR awarded an exclusive eight-state Southeastern sales territory by Thomson Digital Images for TDI Explore, a leading 3-D animation and design system running on Silicon Graphics platforms. At the time, Explore software alone began at approximately $120,000 per user seat, before adding options and the required SGI hardware.
I also designed, manufactured, and marketed a proprietary FCC-approved PC optimized for computer graphics, 3-D animation, photographic, and prepress applications.
Over the years, I was invited to guest lecture at the Georgia Tech School of Visual Computing, including sessions with PhD candidates, and at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
That technical life shaped how I see images, but it is not the reason these photographs exist. The images on Shadows Dancing come from a simpler source: the act of looking, feeling, and preserving a moment before it vanishes.
Please note: the images displayed on this website are presented at web resolution. The original print files are substantially higher quality, typically prepared at much greater resolution and bit depth than can be fully represented online.
© Copyright Jack Brady / Digital Technology Resources Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: business@shadowsdancing.com