picture windows # 39 ~ user (viewer) activation required

Gallery window ~ Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts - Blue Mt. Lake, NY • click to embiggenMy NYC trip included a visit to my favorite little art/photo bookstore where I purchased an interesting book titled simply Stephen Shore. It was not until I returned home that I noticed it signed by Shore which makes the $30.00USD price - marked down from the (unsigned) original price of $70.00USD - a veritable bargain.

The interesting thing about the book is the fact it is not a book of just pictures. While there are plenty of pictures, the book is organized around 4 distinctly different sections: 1) an interview (with some of Shore's pictures) with Shore by art historian Michael Fried; 2) an extended 70-page essay (with lots of Shore's pictures) by critic Chrisy Lange which chronicles Shore's artistic development; 3) an in-depth analysis of just one of Shore's pictures - Holden Street, Massachusetts (July 13, 1974), by photographer Joel Sternfeld; and, 4) a section titled Artist's Choice which showcases - all selected by Shore - a few of his pictures, some of his writings and text extracts and pictures by others whom he admires.

There is a particularly interesting bit in the interview section wherein Shore and Fried talk about the idea of activating the space in a photograph. Specifically, how Shore activates the space in his pictures and, consequently, how he gets the viewer to active the space upon the viewing thereof. In response to Fried's comments regarding the visual sensations associated with moving one's attention in a picture from foreground to middle ground, middle-ground to distant-ground, and distant-ground to "infinity" (inasmuch as "infinity" is represented in any given picture), Shore responded:

One of the things I did at the time ... was stand next to the camera on its tripod and simply look. After I had gotten a rough idea of what I was photographing I would look at what was in front of me and literally pay attention to as much as I could as far back into space as I could see ... it was like a check list. Okay, I have done all this, I have got the rough framework of the picture and now I am going to stand here and really look at everything. The metaphor I have in mind is that in a certain way I am clearing the space for the viewer. That by moving my attention through the scene and making the necessary adjustments to the picture, I clear the space for the viewer to move his or her attention through.

In discussing the picture making medium here on The Landscapist, repeated reference has been made to what I label as visual energy - a visual phenomenon I associate with the repeated movement of the eyes around the surface of a picture - not necessarily in any directed order - almost as if you can't stop the movement because the picture does not give any obvious and comfortable place to come to rest. Your eyes, and consequently your intellect and emotions, seem to just keep on dancing.

To my eye and sensibilities, pictures which activate the space thereof in a restive/restless manner rather than a restful one - an activation which ignores the picture making adage of simplify, simplify, simplify - is one of the primary characteristics which distinguish fine art pictures from merely decorative pictures.

To my eye and sensibilities, those restive/restless pictures are by far the most interesting and engaging pictures. They are most often challenging to look at and visually appreciate and very often equally challenging to "understand". They require a great deal of visual, intellectual, and emotional engagement on the part of the viewer but, most often, bestow great reward in return for the effort expended.

In my picture making, I strive to make pictures in which I try to activate the space in a manner similar to (but not exactly the same) that of Stephen Shore. My desire is to make pictures which give the viewer ample opportunity (via the cleared space) to activate the space of those pictures in whatever manner they see fit. Whatever that manner may be, my hope is that the visual energy visible therein will be engaging and, ultimately, intellectually and emotional rewarding for the viewer.

All of that said, in a review of the book in Publishers Weekly - the book was published in 2007 - regarding the Artists Choice section of the book, a reviewer stated the section contains:

.... a paragraph about Chinese poets, who accept the world exactly as they find it in all its terms, and with profound simplicity therein find sufficient solace. It's a shame that Shore's section isn't longer, as that line perhaps explains his exceptional body of work more completely than any of the learned musings that precede it.

Ultimately, reading through this book, that is the same conclusion I came to - while the "learned musings" contained in the book are, without a doubt, interesting, what I admire and appreciate most about Shore's pictures is, and always has been, the remarkable solace I experience when viewing Shore's pictures of the world exactly as he finds it.

Comments

[Sven W]

Interesting concept.I notice your image of the gallery (which I really like) has details in the foreground, middle-distance and far distance.

But I think a key design element would be the near matching colours of the interior wall and the exterior wall of the barn. The white painted windows frames also link the exterior (middle distance) to the interior (fore-ground).

Could you pls expand on your ideas of "activating the space" and the differences between your approach and Stephen Shore's..