kitchen sink # 25 ~ thinking and decisions

spoon ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

In yesterday's entry, I mentioned that I had started to think about, while assembling the doors body of work, how the exercise of assembling all that work into separate collections began to feel something like, for lack of better terminology, an act of closure or the end of an era. However,not that I am about to stop making pictures, but I most definitely felt - and then thought about that feeling - that I was summing up what it was I have been doing for the last decade and a half, picture making wise.

Now I am left with the task of identifying the components which instigated that feeling and subsequent rumination.

Without question there was the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment which derives from putting all those ducks in a row or, to use another adage, that I have managed to be successful at herding cats. It is only natural that at the end (or so I perceive it to be) of that endeavor I was left with the overarching feeling of "now what?"

There was also a feeling that all the separate bodies of work were "accidental". They were all the result of "unintended consequences" which stemmed from my unfocused, referent wise, M.O. of making pictures. That is to write, I picture whatever pricks my eye and sensibilities, regardless of whatever the referent might be. And, what captures my attention the most is the possibility of transforming elements of the "real" 3-dimensional world onto the 2-dimensional representational world of the printed picture. Doing so with attention to the rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values in order to, as Garry Winogrand stated, find out what something will look like photographed.

That picture making M.O. had left me, post assembling endeavor, a little adrift inasmuch as I have been making pictures outside of the typical body of work M.O. - that is, finely focused attention to just one referent or thematic idea. Although, I make no excuses for that because that is quite simply how I'm wired / how I see (literally). That M.O. could be considered to be Part A of the overarching "now what?" question.

And that led directly to another question needing to be answered - having identified 12 individual bodies of work, can I go forth and make pictures which are the result of deliberately seeking out picture making opportunities to fit into a specific body of work? That possibility gives rise to the thought that, while looking for one specific referent, I might, in all probability, miss quite a few other picture making possibilities, whatever they might be.

Consequently, I have answered that question with a resounding "no". With that answer I have closed the door on the "end of an era" feeling. I can not end the making of pictures in the most "natural" (for me) manner in which I know how. My fear is that my picture making will become "forced" and not the spontaneous act that it now is and has been for what seems like forever. So I will continue to make pictures according to the dictates of my person-specic M.O. and let the results fall into whatever collection seems suitable.

And then there is "now what?" needing an answer - after all of my thinking and decision making, I am still left with the feeling / idea that I should pursue a new body of work which is driven by a deliberate and focused attention to specific theme / idea. And furthermore, that that theme / idea be undertaken within the new(ish) picture making paradigm of constructed or staged imagery ala Photoshop.

As an example, see my life without the APA work or my nascent what is a photograph work. Images - I hesitate to call them pictures - which were assembled / constructed from many bits and pieces of some of my existent pictures. In most cases, specifically life without the APA, those finished images were assembled from up to 12-15 different picture sources.

At this time have no specific notion as to what the theme / idea for this work will be. Continuing with and expanding upon the life without the APA or what is a photograph are two possibilities. However, there is also a nagging voice in my head which is trying to convince me - warning to wife, don't faint - to have people / persons be the focus of the new work. You may have noticed that people / persons are almost nonexistent - with the exception of single woman - in my various bodies of work.

In any event, there is still some thinking to do and decisions to be made.

Comments

[stu]

Your spoon looks far too arranged. Completely contrived.

[Mark]

yet there it was, just like that, when I looked down into the sink