Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is proud to announce that George Salter has been selected as one of four winners in Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery's 33rd "Solo Art Series" Art Competition. George’s month-long solo art exhibition will be featured on the gallery’s website, YouTube channel, and in the “Solo Art Series” Archive.
George’s is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning photographer based in Rhode Island, USA. The gallery will now promote him with an extensive online public relations campaign.
Promotion of George’s solo exhibition will include the distribution of press releases to hundreds of major news outlets. The Gallery will leverage Light Space & Time’s extensive social media network to promote George and his art.
George's work will also be showcased on the gallery's YouTube channel, and promoted via an event postcard, award ribbon, and certificate.
The “Solo Art Series” highlights the work of established artists, who have a body of work to showcase, through a series of online monthly solo exhibitions. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. A careful evaluation of the submissions led to the selection of four artists for month-long solo shows, ensuring a diverse range of artistic styles and approaches would be featured.
Presented below are George's artist biography and statement, together with 25 of his Omo Valley Collection photographs. All of the subjects are all members of the Suri Tribe. We encourage you to peruse his information and admire his art.
Over the past 45 years, George Salter's photography has added new layers to a lifelong fascination with beauty in unexpected places. Early in his career, light and shadow became a central preoccupation, with beauty revealing itself in the geometry and colors of architecture and marine vessels. Drawn to the lines, angles, and textures of architectural features, Salter transformed these details into subjects in their own right, elevating them beyond their role as fragments of a larger structure. This sensibility culminated in his first solo show, Architectural Abstracts, at the EG Photo Gallery in 1992.
Alongside this architectural work, Salter cultivated a parallel love for street photography, an art form long defined by capturing candid moments from a careful, unnoticed distance. That approach shifted fundamentally in 2024, during a trip to Bhutan, where photographing people without their permission is socially unacceptable. There, he began moving physically closer to his subjects — asking permission, building trust, and working collaboratively rather than covertly. As international photographer GMB Akash has observed, "getting close is hard. It asks for courage. It asks for connection. It asks for heart." In that closeness, Salter discovered something new: genuine personal connections with people willing to be vulnerable, to reveal something intimate, to share a fleeting moment of mutual understanding.
This shift redefined his practice. Salter's photographs now dwell in distinctly human territory — where eyes begin to speak and unwritten histories come to life. No longer simply a street photographer, he has become a street portrait photographer, traveling the globe in search of willing collaborators for thoughtful, considered portraits. This pursuit has led him to Cuba, Bolivia, the Philippines, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Russia, India, Bhutan, and Ethiopia, with travels to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea planned for 2026.
My street portraits are intended to be a celebration of different ethnicities around the world, sharing a glimpse into the way people relate to their surroundings through unique customs, foods, dress, music and art. Many ethnic groups are losing their unique identities, and I believe it is important to tell their stories now.
Faces tell stories. Meaningful portraits are collaborations between a subject and a photographer, with each contributing something essential. I photograph people who live in challenging places, where struggle is a fact of life, where joys and hardships are etched into each face. Eyes that reflect resilience are what I am trying to capture.
As a street portrait photographer, my attention is drawn to the individual. My approach is slow. I must break down barriers, alleviating fear and mistrust. I make eye contact, smile, and let the interaction develop naturally. I want to get to a moment of connection, of understanding, often without spoken language.
A portrait is successful when the precise moment of connection is captured in such a way that the viewer, too, can experience that moment.
To see more of George’s work, visit his website.
Click the Thumbnail to See the Artwork in a Lightbox
