Serene. Contemplative. Peaceful. Surreal. These are some of the words that come to mind while studying the finely crafted silver gelatin photographs from Andrew Sovjani. His thoughtful, Zen-like compositions capture the quiet beauty found in our natural and man-made worlds.

Andrew's photographs often take place during what he calls the fringe hours, the quiet introspective time after the sun has set, but before the sky has gone completely dark. The low levels of ambient light found during these hours require the photographer to use exceptionally long exposures, often keeping the lens open for more than 30 minutes at a time. While the lens is held open, the effects of time and movement are allowed to accumulate and participate in the imagery - creating a mood quite different from normal daylight photography. Additionally, photographic film exhibits unusual behavior under these extreme exposure conditions, often resulting in an increase in contrast and helping to create an "etched" look and feel to the image.

All of his silver-gelatin photographs are hand-printed by the artist on fiber paper. Both large and medium format negatives are used to create enlarged prints with exceptional sharpness and detail. Dodging, burning and various other tonal adjustment techniques are used to craft a final print that presents to the viewer an image that communicates what the scene felt like, rather than just simply how it looked at the time. Prints are also toned in a bath of tea or split-toned in a homemade sepia-selenium recipe to warm the highlights and for archival considerations.

Andrew Sovjani was born into a family of working artists in 1967. After seeing first hand the struggles of working artists, he decided to set his own artistic aspirations aside and pursue a career in engineering and international business. While living in Japan in the 90's, Andrew was drawn to photography as a way to record all his travels throughout Asia. It didn't take long to realize, however, that snapshots alone wouldn't quench his desire to get back to creating art. Upon returning to the U.S., he decided to leave the business world to study fine art photography full-time. Andrew has studied with John Sexton and at the New England School of Photography, where he has also taught advanced B&W darkroom techniques. His work has been shown in exhibitions throughout the East Coast and Japan and is held in many private collections.

Andrew has his studio in Conway, a small hill-town near the Berkshires in western Massachusetts where he lives with his wife, Hitomi, and their daughter, Mika.