I was in Chicago last October, at the fabulous Filter Photo Festival. It was an honor for me to look at the portfolios of many new artists. The quality and content of the artists work was high, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself looking at the variety of work.

It was while I was in Chicago I was introduced to a body of work that stopped me in my tracks. I am always thrilled when I find an artist who is approaching the medium in a new and unique way. Someone who looks outside the box, or blows the box up. It was that moment when I saw William William Towers work, that I knew he was someone special. His work is unique, thoughtful and I have to say putting myself out there, a one of a kind portfolio.

His narrative touches all of us in some way, we laugh, we cry, we connect. It is these types of images that sets him apart from the crowded works of simple landscapes, rusted metal and figurative work in nature. It is this special connection that Wm Wm Towers has to his subject that lifts him into the esthetic ether and rarefied air of the greats in photography.
It is the creative mind of people like William William Towers that propels our medium forward, that reminds us of how we define art and creativity.

All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us. – Immanuel Kant

From an early age and since, I William William Towers have experienced visions of alternate realities. What once used to terrify me, I now see as a gift. For it is not everyone that can tap into the realm of the sixth sense. Nor is it for everyone the ability to accept the responsibilities that comes with such visions. As a young lad growing up in Iowa’s Iowa City, Iowa, I was terrified of my visions for I knew not of the derivation from whence they came. It wasn’t until I was nigh 12 of age that my mother took me to the town’s only medium, Ms. Oda Mae Brown, who in all her wisdom was able to mold a sense of awareness and conscientiousness deep within my core.

While most members of my fellow clairvoyant clan are able to access the spiritual dominions of the human soul, my powers have individualized themselves to gain entry into the other-worldly kingdom of spirits from the feline order. I know not from whence my powers to tap into the divine realm of Felis catus originate. However, history has shown that the Ho-Chunk Native American tribes that inhabited my locales of Iowa were devout worshipers of the domestic feline. And henceforth the ground from which I had sprung from birth, and that compose of my material being, have gifted me these visions.

With the advent of new photographic technologies, I have been able to recreate the visions I see in everyday situations. For I feel that photography, and all of its photographic processes, is the perfect medium to represent my reality. Whilst many people tend to question my extra sensory perceptions, I in turn question the veracity of the photographic document. For most viewers see a photograph as a tool to tell us something very truthful about the world. Yet, the photograph is a manipulation by the creator (i.e. the photographer). For the camera is only a subjective lens to regard the numerous interpretations about the world.

So who is the true holder of the truth? Is it you? Is it me? Is it both of us? Or perchance it is neither you nor I. But maybe, perchance, and possibly conceivably, it is only the feline of the species that holds the key to this age-old riddle.

About William William Towers –

Iowa born and raised photographer William William Towers is a world-known photographer who was born in Iowa City, IA in 1962 and currently lives and works in Iowa City, IA. He received a BA in photographic studio arts from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA in 1984 and an additional BA in hospitality management from DeVry University in 1998. He has had solo exhibitions at the Doris & Stanley Gardner Gallery at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, IA, and at T Spoons Coffee House in Iowa City, IA. He was a participant in the “Snap Decisions” Fourth Annual Photo Contest, 2009 sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council for Iowan Artists in 2009 and was prominently featured in the “Capture The Heart of America” Photography Competition at Westfield Corral Ridge Mall in 2010. Towers continues to live and work in Iowa City, IA with his wife and two lovely daughters.