At 19:22 10/3/02, Wayne Harridge asked wrote:
Bill Pearce wrote:
Good morning, class..........
Today's lesson is to read Brooks Jensen's column in the latest issue of
Lenswork. It is about photography and art, and photographic truth. It
speaks, in part, to a discussion we had several months ago. Highly recommended.
Is this available somewhere on the web ?
Wayne Harridge
Wayne,
Yes, indeed:
http://www.lenswork.com/lwq43s.pdf
Scroll through the PDF until you get to the editorial. You'll know it when
you start to read it.
Bill:
A good read and outstanding citation! You're right . . . it fits in with a
thread that occurred here a while back. It expresses in some different
terms much of what I've been thinking for some time . . . and expresses
much of the direction I'm currently headed.
As some of you might know I've been submitting works to photography shows
for the past two years, with some success. I don't know if I will continue
doing this next calendar year; at least with photography shows. The seem
so obsessed with objective representation of "found objects" asi-is,
displays of technical prowess or advanced compositional technique (in music
these are called etudes) that too many photographs, and juried show winning
ones at that, seem lame as artwork even though they may be visually
stunning. I was left scratching my head after the past two shows wondering
what the juror saw in about half the winners.
Technical expertise from start to finish, visually insteresting imagery,
and proper "presentation" as finished works are important, but only as they
support the artwork to its maximum potential. This has been a source of
personal, internal tension and a source of intense frustration over the
past year. Out of this has grown a plan for where I want to go. To Hades
with objective, purely representational works. They must now convey
something more. The serious works must now live up to a First Principle
that "Every Picture Tells a Story." It was the realization this is the
direction I've been drifting, but didn't quite know it yet, and ability to
now articulate it, that has resolved the inner conflict and created a
vision with greater clarity.
To the editorial I add the following:
It is customary for for an artist to provide an Artist's Statement for a
gallery exhibit. What does this statement accomplish? It demonstrates
that the work was done by an artist; one who can articulate, in writing,
what the works are to accomplish; their purpose or goal. It also shows the
artist has clarity of vision for the works and produced them with that in
mind. It gives the viewing public a starting point and provides
information about what the artist is attempting to convey (express) with
the artwork, how it is being conveyed (its medium), and this statement
should be read before viewing the works.
If the artist cannot articulate, in words, what the works are and their
purpose, how can the artist expect what the artwork expresses to be
perceived properly by its viewers? If it occurs anyway, with lack of clear
vision on the part of the artist, then it does so by pure serendipity, and
not by design.
The following was posted with the gallery exhibit (which ended last week)
as my Artist's Statement:
Artist's Statement:
Every Picture Tells a Story: An Eclectic Potpourri
* Photographs are recordings of light. They are not the subjects
themselves, but the light reflected or emitted by them recorded at one
place in space-time and presented to viewers as a print or projected
transparency at another place in space-time. My photographs are created
using three fundamental concepts that comprise my weltansicht of photography:
* Making Versus Taking:
A two-dimensional image cannot record a complete representation of the
five physical senses in four-dimensional space-time. It must use the
visual sense alone to trigger reactions among all the physical senses in
its viewers using their experiential bases. Furthermore, camera optics
and film respond to and record light differently than the human eye and
brain. Photographs are abstractions of reality using only light to record
them in one space-time and to present these recordings to viewers in a
different space-time. "Taking" photographs implies a very passive role
for the photographer. It results in purely representational
imagery. "Making" photographs implies a consciously active role for the
photographer. It requires a priori decisions about aspects of a subject
to celebrate and consideration of its viewers' experiential bases. The
result is visualizing an image with a purpose, to tell a unique story
about the subject, by abstracting a consciously selected slice of reality
using a recording of light.
* Aristotle's Four Aitiai (Causes):
Visualizing a photograph is conscious and deliberative, even if
occasionally simple and occurs almost instantaneously. Decisions about
aspects of the subject to be celebrated are based on Aristotle's four
Aitiai from his Physics (Book II):
a. Material: materials, substances and their textures
b. Formal: shape and form
c. Efficient: how it was built, created or why it came to be
d. Final: purpose, goal or function; telos
A photograph may contain one or more of these. Which ones it contains are
uniquely tailored to tell a story about each subject to an image's
intended viewers.
* Subtractive Composition:
Nearly all graphic arts begin with an "empty canvas." The artist
visualizes the imagery and adds materials to create it. This is an
additive process. My compositional methods employ the opposite. It is a
subtractive process that begins with all of reality. Visual elements that
do not embody, contribute or enhance aspects of the subject to be
celebrated are subdued or removed entirely using compositional
techniques. This third concept completes a visualization and, in turn,
defines the technical methods to be used in making the photograph.
It is difficult to find a common theme in my work. The common threads are
these first principles. Every picture tells a story, uniquely tailored to
each subject, its intended viewers, and the place in space-time at which
it was made. The method generates an eclectic potpourri.
John A. Lind
Kokomo, IN
-- John
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