Slit Canyon, Burr Trail, Southern Utah
When does a style stop being a style and start being repetitive?
Am I repeating what I have done before? Have I stopped trying to explore new artistic areas and approaches? Am I happy doing the same thing I have been doing for, um, well, since forever? Does happiness and self-satisfaction really mean that I’ve gone all formulaic and repetitive? A few months ago I mentioned that even though I am using a digital camera my aesthetic is still grounded in the view camera. I still pretty much work the same way I have worked for the past thirty years. (How many photographers do you know that bolt their digital camera to a tripod? Besides me, of course.) I seem to see the same way I always have seen and record my vision with a much newer and sophisticated camera.
In terms of finished artwork, the end product has changed tremendously. I used to have single prints, mounted, matted and framed hanging on a wall. Now my prints occur in groups, properly sequenced and presented as folios, be they on the web or as a physical artifacts. Multiple photographs have superseded the individual print and I take the time to write an introduction to the work. The art seems to have pushed the photography into the background and it is now a component of a finished piece of art. Is this current method of work a way to enhance the photographic artifact or is it pushing it into the background? Should the photography change to keep up with the presentation?
I don’t have any answers for these questions today, but I do need to keep thinking about what I want to photograph and how to present it.
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