Colorful and abstract photography has always been my primary photographic interest, as my photography mirrors my painting (at www.sharonhudson.com). I seek out colorful abstract subjects such as architecture, vivid paint and graffiti, interesting textures, and decorative details. My earliest abstract photographs were simple compositions featuring bold colors and forms in flattened space.

However, returning from East Asia in 1990, I was inspired to replicate in my urban American photography the color, texture, richness of pattern, and decoration that I had captured in my Asian photographs. In addition, I sought a more intriguing use of depth than the traditional illusion of real space. So I began to photograph overlaid images, such as shadows, objects behind fences and windows, and window reflections, in which one object's shape is defined or modified by another (a shadow or a reflection) superimposed upon it. With this, my abstract photographs became more richly textured and spatially ambiguous, though still guided by vibrant color and/or strong forms.

Reflections and shadows create natural layering and ambiguity, but I also create surreal layered photographic images. Before digital photography, I created in-camera multiple exposures using color slide film. I discovered that multiple exposures yield luminous, surreal colors otherwise unobtainable in photography. I have many surreal and abstract photographs that derive from these in-camera multiple exposures, sometimes enhanced with sandwiched slides or later digital manipulations.