ku # 631 ~ chime in
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 11:32AM 
Rainy mist • click to embiggenLisa Sutcliffe, the assistant curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has asked a single question - which, in turn, I would like to ask you - of photographers whose work is included in the exhibit (which she organized), Photography Now: China, Japan, Korea, currently on display at SFMOMA. In an entry on the SFMOMA blog, there is this lead in to the answers given by 7 of the exhibitors:
Photography, with its ability to “mirror” reality, has a more direct connection to the visible world than most other media, including painting and sculpture. It can also alter our perception of reality, either through the artist’s unique perspective, or by manipulation. Examining artistic decisions can reveal quite a bit about how a photograph is understood. Why was this picture made? Who is the intended audience? What did the artist decide to keep inside the frame or to crop out and how does that change our interpretation of the scene? ... I began to wonder how the rapid cultural transformations, especially in China, might be influencing the growing interest in photography. In addition, I was hoping to find out what intrigues these artists about working with and manipulating the visible world. With this in mind, I asked each artist in the exhibition to answer the same question:
why do you work in photography and how do the particular qualities of the medium affect your artistic decisions?
So, as stated, I would like to ask the same question of all of you - Why do you work in photography and how do the particular qualities of the medium affect your artistic decisions?
I would really, really, really like to read comments and opinions from all of you in answer to this question. Really. Seriously. No kidding.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Svein-Frode wrote: "It's going to be hard to answer this without making it sound like an artist's statement...
my response: an artist statement would be nice but I wouldn't let not having one stop you - or anyone, for that matter - from commenting. Just blurt out whatever comes to mind.
You will not be graded. This is not a spot quiz. There are no wrong answers.
Reader Comments (10)
I think I started in photography because it made pretty pictures with what seemed like little effort. I then seemed to switch to, photography capturing a log of life. Now I'm pretty sure that I like photography because it doesn't capture a log of life.
Photographs never seemed to capture reality and I have grown to like this difference.
I like photography because it can tell stories, and because I can communicate a personal vision or POV of how I see (and interpret) the world around me.
Picture taking is a way to remember where I've been, who I've been with as well as exercising the craft necessary to create a pleasing print. I look back a lot at pictures I've taken and am glad I took them. I'm very glad that many have been digitized so I can view them without having to shuffle through cartons and boxes of old prints!
It's going to be hard to answer this without making it sound like an artist's statement. Gonna have to ponder over this one a while to avoid writing a million words...
Photography requires that you be there.
I consciously choose reality over fiction. It's both a lifestyle choice and a political one. I like things to be what they are and not what everyone else want them to be. Like nudity, reality is beautiful, honest and vulnerable. Photography (still and moving) is capable of recording a sober image of the real world, relatively free of subjective input (compared to other mediums). When interpreting an image of something real we come face to face with our own cultural baggage – our brainwashed selves. As such photography is not just a tool to record and conserve visual memories, but a tool to understand ourselves and the world we live in.
I photograph because a few times in my life I have seen photographs that have completely disrupted the path of my life. What that person saw and then recorded in a photograph had the power to alter my view of the world from that day forward.
I clearly know why I started using photography, the same reason a teenager wants to learn to play a guitar. He hears his favorite band, it moves him, and he wants to do "that". I saw Adams, Siskind, Porter, et al and wanted to do "that".
I'm not sure why I continue to photograph. I do know that one of the reasons I use photograph over panting and drawing is its connection to the real. It has a strong undeniable connection to a specific place and time. In some weird pathetic way I think of my work connected in some way to the explorer photographers like Jackson. I guess I'm exploring and photographing where I am and go.
I guess I'm interested in the nature of the photograph as well. How it captures and the image I see. I mean how it looks, the photograph, as opposed to what I saw. And I like the way a print looks as an object. I like looking at my prints, or usually images on my computer. They are a thing of interest to me. I don't care if they are to any one else, but I like it when someone does.
When I think about why I photograph and what I'm trying to do photography wise, it seems like a moving target. I can never pin it down. One thing leads to another and to another and I end up away from where I started. Some times it's interesting to think about and other times a bother. When it comes down to it I don't care. I just photograph.
O.K., I'll be honest. I started photography because it was cool. When did I start? Well, "Blowup" was also cool at the time. Annie Liebowitz was just getting started. "Life" magazine still existed (and was actually good).
Why do I keep at it? Um, it's fun? It's a way to pay attention? I'd like to think that it's a way to express some aspect of myself, but I'd have to figure out what that aspect was, first.
What I'd be interested in knowing is how many photographers are fans of Andy Warhol. I, probably needless to say, am a big fan. Andy saw (I'd italicize that, if I knew how) things. He saw the "art" in the artless. "Look at this", was his Artist's Statement. And that's all I'm doing with the things I photograph - "Look at this. Neat, huh?"
Digital photography seduced me! I was quite happy playing with mud, I was a potter, when I was exploring the idea of applying photo transfers to pots.
From the first few shots I was completely taken over by the possibilities. 8 years later I am still enamoured, and enriched by the relationship. As a medium it enables a rich exploration of the many facets that make up "self" and "other". Plus no matter how well I may picture there is always room to improve and develop, wonderfully challenging. :-)