Michael Largent

Photography 

“Some artists paint with oils, Michael Largent paints with pixels. Taking a 180° turn from his days as a photojournalist at the Chattanooga News-Free Press and the Chattanooga Times, he is now an unapologetic pictorialist. He shoots what he sees and then he makes it what it becomes - each image deliberately manipulated to achieve his ultimate vision. He current work experiments with combining the look and feel of alternative process prints, cheap camera lenses, mystery, textures and a pictorialist frame of mind. He achieves his "low tech" results using film and digital cameras, and lots of layers, textures, and actions in Photoshop on his Macintosh computer.


Michael states: "If my photos have a mission, it is to make the seen the unseen and the unseen the seen. I want my photographs to be nearly impossible to reproduce by just anyone with a digital camera. As a photographer, I want to zig while everyone else is zagging."


After he earned a BA in Photographic Design from TN Temple University, Michael embarked on a 30+ year career in advertising, graphic design, and marketing. Working in the Atlanta market for 25 years taught him the value of excellence, craftsmanship and having a unique vision. Michael has photographed in 27 countries including Chile, Thailand, and Switzerland. After moving back to Chattanooga in 2006, he rediscovered the natural beauty of this area. Tennessee and north Georgia's interesting architecture, rich history, and its natural beauty are the dominant subjects of his body of work.


Michael's photography has been published in a number of periodicals and websites. In addition to a "real job", he is an adjunct instructor at Chattanooga State Technical Community College.