CHROMOGRAPHY: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ART OF DONALD SATTERLEE

Photography: Donald Satterlee

Donald Satterlee is a guy who loves photography, it has been his whole professional life. He is one of the top commercial photographers in Sacramento specializing in architectural photography, but he has done a bit of everything over the years from product work to fine art photography.

When he is not working for clients he works on personal projects which, usually end up hanging in a gallery or finding a home with clients. Chromography is one such project. Any pro worth their salt has to have post-production skills and Donald is one of the best Photoshop artists out there. Chromography is a combination of a perceptive and curious eye and great post skills. We had a quick moment to ask him about it.

Donald, how did this series of photos come about?

“Ok, so in 2007 I started going to car shows and I just loved them. And I took all these closeup photos of different components of the custom cars and then had this huge library of photos. I had nothing better to do with them than kind of mess with them and I mirrored the images and then looked at them at different angles and created these abstract shapes. Which look somewhat real because you know they’re cars. But they don’t look real because they’re so…”

They’re out of context

“Yes, they’re out of context.” 

You have similar shapes among the photos what were you going for?

“The heart shapes I thought were really interesting. If it’s an elipse it’s easy to make a heart out of it. The mechanical ones are more like motorcycle engines and stuff like that. They resemble something out of "Mad Max” the movie. Ha! I have some airplane engines and motorcycle tanks, all sorts of things.”

How do you produce this kind of image? 

“So in Photoshop, I actually hold a mirror up to the screen and I twist it around and I figure out what angle might make an interesting shape. And I mirror the image and then crop it to whatever I thing would be interesting.”

Chromography will be up at the Art House Gallery in Sacramento from November 8 to December 8. The opening reception is Saturday November 9 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.

You can see more of Donald Satterlee’s work at: https://www.satterleephoto.com/