Mortensen is convinced that photography, whatever else it may be, is a focusing on detail. Mortensen likes sotto voce details; he gives his attention to instants that would otherwise have passed by unobserved, or more significantly, unregistered. His work suggests a view of life where experience has value without the artist intervening to rearrange and structure it. He does not seek out the shockingly strange but instead notices the sharp buzz of formal or color relationships, whether he is photographing on the streets of L.A. or in New Zealand.

A minute gesture, an accidental encounter, a change of light— Mortensen uses his art to capture the simple moments of his life, to give them meaning, to satisfy his curiosity, and to express his wonder at the "suchness" of people and things in the passing world.

His photographs-color, black and white, manipulated, composite-that point to the fluidity of meaning of a world in flux. Taken deliberately or snapped on the run are juxtaposed with old, found images that may, in their turn, be altered, scratched and manipulated by the latest digital technology.