Isentropic lift, 2017 — Convergent :: (click to see more)
I was thinking about how photography and music production software and equipment has improved so incredibly over my career. This has boosted the quality of work produced by artists and we’ve collectively come to expect more from artists too. The software and equipment improvements have also democratized access – lowered the barrier to entry and made it less expensive to become involved. Consequently more people have produced work, which in a feedback loop, increases our expectations over quality. What was once considered acceptable is now considered mediocre.
True, it’s become much easier to make great things – the software and equipment has leveraged our creativity to incredible levels, such that now what were once extremely difficult tasks are routine and commonplace. These improvements have also opened new vistas of cross-polination between artistic disciplines and opened up possibilities that didn’t and couldn’t exist before.
It’s difficult to project where this will lead. We humans think in linear terms and project in straight lines – but these changes have been non-linear. They’ve seen exponential growth and we aren’t well equipped to imagine that kind of change.
Storm Front, 2015 – Convergent :: (click to see more)Midnight Sun, 2015 –Convergent :: (click to see more)Fixed Lens
It’s back!
I figured since the cost of repair was essentially the same as replacement I might as well take a crack at fixing it. After several youtube videos of lens repairs I took a shot at it. Although there’s a chunk of plastic missing inside where one of the screws was levered out of it’s socket the rest went back together and everything works. Kind of a study in miniature screws and fiddly small puzzle pieces – and the green elastic stops the focus ring from wandering around with all the vibrations from riding – not hold the lens together.
Also picked up an amazing book on abstraction in photography – Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction In Photography. Just flipping through and checking out the images I’m very excited to read it. Although on first thought it appears most of the abstract photographers are making some form of photogram. Still some amazing images and very interesting ideas.
Underwater Calm, 2014 – Light Signatures :: (click to see more)
I believe I’ve already related anecdotes about people mistaking my images for paintings. I’ve wrestled with how to classify my work for years now and some time ago I put painterly photography in my email signature.
The other day I had some interesting conversations about how photography is changing, particularly now that image manipulation tools are ubiquitous on smart phones and tablets. In 1994 when I first managed to get my hands on a mac with photoshop version 1 installed and took my first swipe at one of my digitized negatives, it was to massage and abstract the image. And that was it, I was hooked – completely. So much so, I resolved to place my head back in the jaws of the lion and get a decent paying contract job to save money for my dream computer rig – so I could scan and rework my photographs. Ironically the first image I chose to work on in photoshop, was about movement – a smeared image of a cyclist friend riding through the woods.
Only 20 years ago, digital photography was incredibly expensive and mostly the domain of professional commercial photographers. This has changed rapidly since, plus the pace of change has increased rapidly to the point now, where anyone with a smart phone can access apps to adjust their images with increasingly finer control. Some time ago a friend of mine made an interesting observation about how photography changed when cameras moved from waist height range finders to eye height view finders. The photographs people made with view finders were much more personal and intimate.
Our ready access to digital tools like photoshop is changing what we do with photography once again. We are combining mediums like painting, illustration and numerous other disciplines with photography in exciting and interesting ways producing amazing hybrids. This is happening in nearly every field, creative or otherwise, that has moved from analog to digital – music, film – you name it. Having the ability to mediate via some kind of computer, has opened the flood gates of imagination and possibility. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Orange Green And Yellow Waves, 2013 – Light Signatures :: (click to see more)
I just read and have read so many statements and critiques about truth and photography. It seems that somehow we have become stuck on this notion that photographs tell the truth and that now with the advent of digital manipulation this hard fact has been subverted. I think we’re missing the point. Its true photographs have the ability to record real things, places, scenes, activity etc – … within the confines of the technical ability of the equipment employed at the time, but – whether or not the recorded things are in fact real depends on so many factors – many of the same factors that a recording made with paint, or graphite or marble etc also encompass. That is to say, these and other mediums can also record truth, albeit not so readily.
I think the real issue here is that somehow as a society we became lulled into associating photography with recorded truth. That was our collective mistake and now it has become difficult and often an angering one to disassociate.
Aside from photography’s historic aspect as a medium for recording truth, digitized photography has opened an incredible wealth of possibilities to explore – the most obvious of which is to play off our collective mis-conception that photographs don’t lie. Much of the possibilities to explore I’m sure are as yet to be dreamt of, let alone discovered and applied.
But all this begs the true question at the crux of the matter – What Is Truth?
All us humans, are essentially minds locked inside bodies with various sensory apparatus. Are we to rely upon our senses for an assessment of the truth? Are we to trust our interpretations of our senses for the truth? Can we even be certain that we are not just dreaming? I know all of this is academic and has long been hashed over philosophically and that essential bootstrap arguments have been derived that allow us to determine that yes, we are in fact awake and not dreaming our own “reality”.
Still – truth is an interpretation that we are socialized with – that we learn as we grow – learned, just like we learned that photographs show truth.
Photographs depict truth = not always, not anymore.
Blue Green Mauve Ripples, 2012 – Light Signatures :: (Click to see more)
After speaking with my nephew about photography and art the other day, I had a fresh realization that there is a great deal behind what I’m doing – that there’s a considerable amount of thought in my execution. Perhaps not so much conscious thought when I’m doing and making and choosing but definitely something sub-conscious that’s been fed by careful prior consideration.
Its heartening to remember this. At times I begin to feel fake, like I’m just guessing at the answer or grasping at straws. But then when I see all the work together in its entirety, its like I’ve just come out of a deep dark wood and I can see the horizon again.
It’s also interesting to see the progression that’s occurring. It’s clear that my ideas about what I’m doing are evolving and changing slightly – becoming clearer and more lively. I’m going to have to go back and revisit some of the earlier pieces and reinterpret them – at least a little.
Turquoise Green Yellow Lines, 2012 – Light Signatures :: (Click to see more)
I read a post by Chris Guillebeau some time ago in which he wrote about building a legacy. At the time I was beginning to feel at loose ends about my creative efforts and starting to think they were perhaps valueless in the overall scheme of things. Then I read Chris’s post and I thought wow – not true. My creative efforts taken as a whole over the course of my life are my true legacy and THAT is worth striving, struggling and working hard for – a noble and worthy life goal.
Now, this is by no means my only legacy. I’m fortunate to have a young son and he is another legacy of sorts and of course there are other less obvious legacies – like my small social efforts – leading by example etc. Taken as a whole they comprise my singular contribution to society and future generations. This is exactly what we are ALL doing every day of our lives – slowly inexorably building our own legacies.
For a long time now I’ve struggled with a strong feeling of unworthiness in regard to my creative efforts. I wasn’t formally schooled in art. I have no training in art history. I only ever attended a one year college photography program to gain some specific technical training and a single first year sculpture fine arts university course. So I feel overwhelmingly under qualified to call myself an artist.
But, lately I’ve had a growing sense of entitlement about who I am and what I do – a self-awareness of sorts. Reading Chris’s post about building a legacy only served to snap it all into perspective – to provide a completing sense of purpose to the whole endeavour.
In truth, it’s not like I haven’t put in a huge amount of effort to learn on my own for many years in many varied areas. I have a degree in computer science, I’ve attended countless workshops and seminars, visited many galleries and openings, read a ba-zillion books, blog posts, FAQs, help files – you name it – if it was related to my pursuits or interesting I gobbled it up. I had an extensive and in retrospect fairly intense period of music training from about age 9 to 19 in piano, trombone, voice and theory – which I find surprisingly is still buried deep within me as I take my son to his new music lessons. I have pursued my interest in photography since the age of 10 when I remember asking for a tour of our family portrait photographer’s dark room to see how this mysterious thing called photography worked – that was 37 years ago when my personal exploration of photography began.
Over the past 4 years I’ve spent pretty much all my creative effort analyzing my work, thinking about what I’m doing and why. In a nutshell – trying to figure out how to explain myself.
Why do I make the work I do?
What am I trying to communicate with my work?
What is the thread of my interest?
Where does the source of that thread originate?
For a long time I’ve felt my answers were shallow, trite, ill considered and cliche. But slowly – recently – I feel I’m finally arriving at an honest answer to these questions about who I am and – as I’ve said before the most important question of all – WHY.
