Larry Hamill
2005 Columbus, Ohio Calendar
For professional photographer Larry Hamill, 67, seeing the world around him is an inspiration in itself.
One day, when Hamill was in junior high, he read a book that described how to create a carbon arc.
“It’s literally what they used to use in movie projectors and in searchlights that would go for miles,” says Hamill.
Hamill’s seventh-grade self decided to create an arc of his own, and while the experiment was successful, it had some unexpected consequences.
“I was down in the basement and my parents were away and I had this giant light going,” he says. “The next day, I woke up and I couldn’t see.”
Larry Hamill
His mother rushed him to the hospital, where a doctor bandaged his eyes and reassured him that they would recover. When his sight returned five days later, Hamill remembers feeling very fortunate to be able to continue his passion.
“I was going, ‘Whoa, I just totally blew one of the most important things to me: Seeing things and creating artwork,’” says Hamill.
This experience has stayed with Hamill over his many years as an artist, inspiring him to keep creating and experimenting, though usually under safer circumstances. After graduating with a degree in painting and drawing from The Ohio State University, he saved up money for a camera and started teaching himself photography.
He started his own business, Larry Hamill Photography, and has been producing corporate and industrial images for over 25 years. But that doesn’t mean he has no time for more creative endeavors.
“I shoot commercially to buy myself time to do more paintings and artwork and experimental photography,” says Hamill. “So when I’m not shooting commercially, I’m shooting for the fun of it.”
Hamill works on his creative images at his studio in German Village, which he has occupied for 40 years. His artwork varies dramatically in form and style, depending on what inspires him at a particular moment.
He’s also constantly experimenting, just as he did in junior high. His diverse portfolio of creative work includes computer-rendered 3D imagery, both aerial and infrared photography, and many different styles of painting and drawing.
Though he spends an immense amount of time creating artwork, most of his pieces are made just for the fun of it.
“I’ve got a whole series of 8’ by 10” paintings I’ve been doing for 20 years. At this point, it’s 10 inches high by 192 yards long. (…) It’s over 800 canvases,” says Hamill. “I don’t paint them to sell them and hardly anybody’s seen these. I’m just doing different techniques. It’s like exploring with the 3-D but with different paints and gels, and it goes from realistic images to really abstract images to sequences of loads of color.”
One of Hamill’s longest-standing projects showcases his passion for mixing abstraction and realism by layering images in Adobe Photoshop. This is the main theme of Hamill’s Columbus Poster Calendar, which he has produced for 27 years. The calendar is filled with impossible images of Columbus, often featuring local faces and distant mountains.
1 of 4
2 of 4
Between Two Bridges
3 of 4
Schiller Park Infrared
4 of 4
Winter Spring Schiller
Though Hamill loves his hometown, he has always wished there were peaks behind the Columbus skyline. As it turns out, the search for Columbus’ fabricated mountains has been a fantastic excuse for some amazing road trips.
“Each year, I’d try to figure out a place where I could go and get mountains to put behind Columbus,” says Hamill. “That was kind of a rationalization, and it was a good experience. It might take me days of driving until I found the right light or mountain range.”
Hamill has received grants for fine artwork from the Ohio Arts Council. His art and photography have won many awards over the years, both locally and internationally. Just last year, he won second place in the working helicopter category of Vertical Magazine’s photo contest. He was also the keynote speaker at the Photographic Society of New Zealand’s annual convention.
Hamill’s professional photography can be found at www.larryhamill.com. His photography and travel blog can be found at larryhamillphotography.wordpress.com, and his Facebook page has featured a new image every day for the last eight years.
Valerie Mauger is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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