Trey Ratcliff is an artist and a CEO. His HDR (high dynamic range) photography is wildly colorful and intense. Although he appears to absolutely hate Andy Warhol, he does love nature and recently found himself on top of a lava cooled mountain in Costa Rica with his IPOD. Trey agreed to answer all our questions and show us what the hell HDR is.

Tell us about how you make your art. What's your process: I specialize in pushing HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography forward. It's an emerging art form and I like to test the medium by finding either interesting subjects or re-creating classic shots. I'd like to think my HDR technique adds a new perspective. HDR also allows some fascinating effects on shiny and
colorful subjects like normally predictable photographs.

Who is your Art for? Me and people with my brain-style.

What is your Art supposed to do? Help me to cheat death.

What is your art worth? Since digital art has infinite supply, it's whatever the free-market can support indirectly via commercialism.

What single work of art would you most like to destroy? That overrated Campbell Soup deal.

Name one crappy "Artist": Andy Warhol. I know this is blasphemy in certain circles, but those are the same circles that will sit there and analyze modern art and discuss, in excruciating sensitive detail, how a painting of a camouflaged baby represents the exploitive nature of capitalism.
Now name another one: Robert Ryman. This is another modern artist that draws orthogonal lines and people swoon at them because other so-called-intellectuals tell them the art is swoon-worthy.

Best museum: Musee d'Orsay Worst museum: Museum of Tolerance. This museum has a really annoying name to me.

Describe the finest moment of your artistic endeavors: Standing on a recently cooled lava-flow in Costa Rica up near Nicaragua at sunset with my camera and my iPod. It was hard not to take a good picture.
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NOW GET DOWN AND GIVE US 19

1. Favorite ANIMAL: T-Rex, if dinosaurs count as animals, which I think they should.

2. What gets you excited? Seeing my creative ideas actually working the way I anticipated

3. Worst Job: Those poor people that have to stand inside museums all day and direct traffic or remind people what they are looking at. Dream job: I don't know... I don't think man was meant to do one thing his entire life.

4. Best kept secret about NYC: I won't tell anyone that.

5. What would you do if you found A LOT of cash in a cab? Give it to the cab driver.

6. Favorite website: www.techcrunch.com Most embarrassing favorite website:interesting.isaias.com - I like to go there to see what photos of mine people find interesting... it's usually different than my choices.

7. Early bird or night owl? Both - I don't sleep much.

8. Motto, mantra, words of advice, or favorite quote: "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Churchill

9. Name your favorite ISM: What is that?

10. If you invented a recreational drug, what would it be called? Snowcrash

11. What's the greatest thing the internet has given mankind? Flickr

12. Who owes you something? Too many to list - and probably boring to most people to read about.

13. How would you run the zoo? Make sure every other animal was a monkey - people love monkeys.

14. How do you kill time: Surf around and find creativity in Flickr. I set up a group on there with some of the most creative people at http://www.flickr.com/groups/stuckincustoms_brilliant_photographers/

15. Favorite watering hole: Mozart's on the Lake here in Austin.

16. Are you looking for anyone you've lost contact with? (maybe we could help.) Hans Snook (yes, a real person)

17. Do you need anything really bad? No.

18. Any tips for the kids? Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

19. Shout outs: To my Flickr friends who I have never met and who may be quite strange in person, but who do some amazing work.

Name: Trey Ratcliff
Url: www.stuckincustoms.com