Thought Processor: The History of My Photography

Continued from June 1 post…

I began photographing with black-and-white film in 1994 and used color film only occasionally for the following ten years. I also built a chemical darkroom that year. As far as the visual arts are concerned, I have preferred abstract art. And in photography, the black-and-white medium has, in my opinion, the greatest potential for creating works at various levels of abstraction. The camera’s view of the world is an abstraction to begin with, created by its lens and internal frame that subtract and distort the visual data viewed by the eyes. That abstract function of the camera allows the mind to concentrate on a fraction of the broader vista that exists outside the camera. A black-and-white photograph is more abstract than one of color because color is subtracted from the visual information, letting the mind concentrate on the forms within the image. By manipulating the four major components of photographic composition - light, content, focus, and perspective - the abstract quality of an image can be increased to the point where the objects in a photograph are unidentifiable by the mind. “Tree Garden,” which happens to be a color print, is an example of an image whose abstraction is created by complete lack of focus, although the content is still recognizable. The subtraction of clear definition of form lets the mind concentrate on the fields of color.

Tree Garden

The only traditional still lifes I have done are in black-and-white. They are of flowers I brought indoors to photograph in a totally dark room. The making of those photographs, such as “Bleeding Hearts” and “Daffodil,” required more concentrated effort than any of my landscapes.

Bleeding Hearts

Daffodil

The “Barn Door,” which I consider to be a still life, is an example of what Schopenhauer was speaking when he wrote of the Dutch painters who, in their still life paintings of insignificant objects, demonstrated the objective artist’s ability to present a transcendent meaning to ordinary experience. Old barns, in a degenerative state, convey a sense of the corruptibility of physical things. One year after I photographed the “Barn Door” I returned to see the door completely fallen to the ground and most of the charm of the old barn had disappeared. I had photographed the barn during the optimum period of its metaphorical phase. From 1994 onwards, I began to bring the subject of my photography in closer to me, cutting out more and more of the context either by limiting the focus or excising the surrounding content. Old barns and abandoned old trucks became two of my favored subjects.

To be continued…

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