Why do we make art?
Since the beginning of time, we humans have been genetically programmed to share our thoughts and ideas with each other. It helped us to survive. Art is the most profound way for us to connect to each other…be it music, dance, art or poetry. Art in some form exists in every culture in the world. As it has before and always will. Making art and exposing oneself to art in all it’s forms is in our genes.
That’s why that subject of our common connection permeates throughout my work. I started by photographing groups of nudes of various races posing together. Then for my magnum opus, I created the show: “Ruminations on Adam and Eve” inspired by the story of how we all are descended from one woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago. A story based on the findings of genetic science. Now, with my new work; “Memories” I use portraiture and the subject’s personal photographs, because it seems that all of us keep personal histories in photos. Can the concept of existentialism contain all of us? It does.
Rick Schwab 2026