Photo Gallery
Artist Statement
Light of Puerto Morelos
Light Of Puerto Morelos is Reed Stuart Rahn’s 2nd Fine Art Photographic Series of Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Taken in 2023 and 2024. After living 6 months out of the year for a couple of years in Puerto, Reed decided to go back to school at 64 years of age to receive a Master’s of Fine Art in Photography from the online program at The Academy of Art University in SanFrancisco, California. In his first Fine Art Photography class, he was prompted to create a series on one subject matter. It soon came to be known as “Light Of Puerto Morelos.”! What you see was 60 days of “Nonstop Photography”. Every morning, getting up before sunrise, and in some cases, knowing the atmospheric conditions were just right, he would show up at other times to create 15 timeless images. The result was that he created a series that even National Geographic would be proud of.
As you have read in Reed’s Bio, he was a famous editorial people photographer for 36 years for hundreds of magazines like National Geographic and photographing covers of magazines like Time Magazine. But in the back of his head, he would always hear the voices of nature, to become the next Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Elliot Porter, Ernst Haas, Art Wolfe. For over 49 years, Reed has lived to one day see his work next to “Theirs”!
So what separates Reed’s work from that of another photographer is his two new terms for photography as a new Associate Professor. First, his Human Signature. What does that mean? It means his photographs embed physical presence, lived and experienced, in a photographic image by himself in real time in a real place. Reed intended to share his connection to those timeless moments. In the images, one starts to feel the overwhelming sense that the photographer didn’t just take a photograph. He could see, feel, hear, and smell the amazing body of water and sky in front of him. His human signature is his heart connected to the vibration of nature, and transmitting the second term “Perceptual Signature”, the cognitive and creative ability of over 49 years of studying other artists, to become a world-class photographer.
The images are forever. They are “Transcendental Experiences”, like the great photographer and curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, John Szarkowski, would say. The old docks of wood beams sticking out of the water were the remains of the past of a once-thriving fishing community. Three years later, they are almost all gone. Mother Nature is forever, but we humans and fishing docks are a temporary experience. He intended to share the magical moments of the Mayan Caribbean, which will never be photographed again. In his love for the “Ocean and Its Creatures,” 40% of all sales go to the rebuilding of the Reef at the 501(c)(3) Reef Rescue School! As he has been telling his son for 27 years, we are here to make a difference.
The 11 x 8.5-inch prints are limited edition prints of only 30 each, signed, dated, and numbered. The prints and inks are archival with preservation for over 200 years. When you purchase a print, you aren’t just purchasing art; you are buying an art investment that will continue to grow over time. Thank you for sharing what matters.