Photographer Paul Smyres was born and raised in the foothills of the
Himalayan mountains, in the village of Mussoorie, in North Central
India. In 1966, at the age of fourteen, his parents left India
permanently. They brought their 4 children across the Middle East, from Karachi,
Pakistan, to Amsterdam, Holland, traveling in a Volkswagen camper. During that
journey the family had the opportunity to visit Tehran, Bagdhad, Jerusalem, and Istanbul,
as well as a number of European cities. While in India Mr. Smyres attended a private
American school named Woodstock School, in
Mussoorie. about 20 miles north of Dehra Dun. Situated at about 7,000 feet in
altitude, the view from the school overlooks the Northern Plains of India, with a view
north of the eternally snow-covered peaks of the high Himalayas. He attended high
school in a NY small town in NY's southern tier, near Binghamton. College was
in Albion, Michigan.
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Paul's
father, Robert, is a retired Methodist minister and missionary who spent seventeen
years in India. His mother, also retired, was an elementary school teacher for
many years. They both are healthy and live near Jacksonville, Florida. Mr
Smyres has two sisters, both teachers, and a younger brother Phillip who is in the college textbook business. He was also born
in India. Paul's grandfather,
Roy,
was a Methodist missionary to Africa and a
photographer. He was an early pioneer into the Belgian
Congo in the 1920's on behalf of the Methodist Church. The elder Smyres was an
ordained minister, and during his life went around the world several times, taking
historical and documentary photographs for the Methodist Church, in addition
to preaching. He was known for his entertaining stories and sense of humor and lived
until he was 99.
"It was a truly wonderful experience growing up in India, and it would have been
impossible if my family had not chosen missionary work. I have not continued
the family tradition, however, because I believe in a more universal and non-sectarian
approach to solving various social problems. During my life I have been able to
witness directly many religious practices, including those performed by Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, Jews, Sikhs, and others in their daily
lives, and I am often inspired by them. My own contentment comes from a meditative practice I do that was taught to me during
my early college years." |
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Since his return to America, Paul has traveled to 40 states and
lived for several years in six or seven. He worked in the tourist industry for
8 years, mostly in Florida, and has been to Canada, Venezuela,
Italy, England, and Puerto Rico since returning to
the United States. During early trips to India he visited many famous cities in
Europe, including Rome, Geneva, Vienna, Amsterdam, Istanbul, and many others. During
his two three-week visits to Venezuela, he hiked and traveled
by horseback into the mountains in the Western
part of the country. He now lives in Millerton, NY,
where he has a studio on an old farm property. |
In addition to his private work and this
website, he has photographed hundred of infants, and children,
at elementary and dance
schools for several photography companies. One of his favorite subjects is pets, and
he collects their
portraits He's done a lot of pet photography. See some of the
samples: cats, dogs, parrots, horses. He also does portrait work New
York City. Paul is a licensed real estate agent in NY, too, and works for Steed Real Estate in Millerton, NY. He
uses his photography skills to promote properties using the internet. |
   
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Mr. Smyres has three children. The two older are
boys.
Since they were very young, he has engaged them in many outdoor recreation
activities, especially camping.
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Robert enjoys gardening.
When he was younger he worked in
landscaping and garden design.
He's quite fluent in Spanish. He's done work on school newspapers, and
has met both Hillary and Bill Clinton. He's a good rap
lyricist, too, and enjoys producing rap poetry that sometimes has political
commentary,
or is just for fun.
He likes music, and he's the main designer and advertising manager for a new website:
www.livingbeing.com |
Evan, 24, is a pilot and has already
done many solo flights in a Cessna 152 and 172,
accumulating over 75 hours of air
time.
He's very athletic and enjoys the outdoors. He's studying business in
college
and plans to major in commercial
aviation.
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Sarah, 21, aspires to be a
math teacher. She's a very spirited and fun-loving girl. She
does tutoring
for a community organization and is attending college.
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" I chose
photography as a medium of expression for several reasons. First, it
forces one to focus on single moments, tiny fractions of a second. I find
that very exhilarating because it requires an alert concentration and deep
sense of appreciation. In my work I seek primarily to present pure
beauty, a reflection of life as it is. Consequently, I rarely use any
filter except a polarizer, unless I'm shooting in black and white. I
try to extract the beautiful and sublime from ordinary scenes. I also
look for odd juxtapositions of images that are real, instead of being
posed.
Secondly,
one photograph can say so much, for so long a time. Because we live in a visual age,
photography in all its forms is the medium preferred by the public, primarily because it
is instantaneous and transcends words. Occasionally a single image can be so
powerful it becomes a permanent part of our conscious memory. The transformational and healing quality of images has
been noted by famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung,
and
many others. The average person is bombarded daily with an immense amount of imagery,
some of it horrible or chaotic. Most of it is also moving, that is, in video form,
which can be very distracting or even disturbing. Because a moving image contains
inherently more information, it is often presumed to be more valuable. However, it
is generally easier to remember a still image. The challenge is therefore to choose
which image to record out of many possibilities. By paying close attention to
those images which evoke harmony and beauty, a sense of upliftment comes, and a
realization of the many gifts that exist simply by being alive.
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Although I enjoy writing, too, it's
very time-consuming and solitary. Photography is a far more social
activity. A portrait photographer must see the beautiful in people and
try to draw it out. That aspect of it enables me to meet and learn to
appreciate all kinds of people. Portrait photographers must sometimes
work with many people, and often with children or pets whose behavior is
unpredictable. It requires great patience, at times."
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An avid
computer enthusiast for many years, Mr. Smyres also studied basic electronics and has
assembled many computers. With this website, he has combined his interest in
computers and photography, using the medium of the internet not only as a live portfolio,
but an educational and entertaining resource available to all. This site is in the
earliest stages of production, and is being developed slowly according to funding.
"Much
of my work on this website is simply a record of common images, objects, and situations we
deal with daily but do not normally remember. I try to record those images with
as much attention to artistic principles as possible under the circumstances, but there is
deliberately a journalistic and storytelling element in many of the
photos. There may be asymmetry in one or more ways, often reflecting the view
that is actually seen, not an idealized one. One of the advantages of publishing
directly to the internet
is the ability to immediately crop unwanted elements of the
image. This allows great flexibility in shooting, which is important because many of
the photos are shot under far less than ideal conditions, and often with a simple
camera. I often use a small digital camera, the Nikon Coolpix 950. |
Mr. Smyres created this internet site after being
moved by the events at Columbine High School in April 1999
and in Kosovo. He intends to help establish a foundation to benefit
young victims of violence.
Since the events of September 11, 2001,
Mr. Smyres stepped up his efforts to
enlarge and promote this site.
Having seen a variety of cultures and
been a witness to extreme poverty,
he wishes to use his craft in a manner
that will help young victims in some small way.
Since the internet is such a powerful communication tool and has a proven
capacity
to generate enormous sums of money,
he believes it is appropriate to use it to help the people who,
for all practical
purposes, cannot help themselves.
That is, the children who become victims of senseless war and other forms of
violence.
A variety of merchandise is offered on this site, and
during 2003,
a large selection of many kinds of products will be offered for sale here.
Further information will be found periodically on this site. |
