When I was at a young and impressionable age, my older brother introduced me to magic. Not real magic of course, but tricks where the true beauty is hidden behind layers of misdirection and the journey that the magician and his spectator take together. So I learned the cups and balls, linking rings, color changing knives... all the things that made magic cool.

As I got older, I've bought countless books on magic, but don't perform or practice it. And in that way I will always feel a little empty, knowing the secret behind the mysteries but not sharing the experience with others, that sense of wonder that most magicians feel when their audience's faces light up in that special relationship.

Photography fills that empty void in my life. I travel, hike, dive, boat or sometimes just wait for a fleeting moment in a crowded place to capture that hidden and obscured image that most will never experience first hand.

It is watching the smiles that tiptoes across a face at a picture of a playful bear or the twinkle of awe that a hidden landscape gives someone that completes my journey.  

Thank you for coming and good night. 

Photographer John Doak specializes in photography that is invisible to us, hidden by distance, patience, and the movement of time.