Fleeting Thoughts
Flights are (almost) always a pretty boring thing. There are very few things which can be done, and the will to do them fades away very quickly, well before the journey is over. I have somewhat learnt to adapt to this situation and enjoy some ‘alone’ time. I enjoy getting carried away by my thoughts, and writing sometimes helps me organise (somewhat) all the hubbub that floods my mind as soon as it is left unattended for a short while.
I brought with me a very famous book on photography (indeed aptly named ‘on photography’, written in the 1970’s by Susan Sontag). It is very well written and does have some truly inspiring words. It is clear that the writer had a passion for photography and spent long hours researching the content. As I read through it I find (rather disappointingly) that most of what she wrote is still very valid today, more than 30 years later. Has photography stagnated so much that we are still rummaging on the same ideas photographers created more than a quarter of a century ago? Many things have happened since then. Many photographers have come and gone, and left their mark. But is it a significant mark in the history of photography? Somehow I have my doubts. It is true, photography has changed, especially since the digital revolution, but I somehow don’t feel that photographers have changed too. Maybe I’m missing something but possibly the same fact that I’m missing it means it isn’t significant enough. I worry that maybe we’ve arrived to a stage where photography has come to the end of it’s development and it’s now about running around in circles effectively flogging a dead horse. Susan Sontag does mention it briefly in her book. Maybe she was right already 30 years ago.
I however refuse to believe this is entirely correct (although I’ve seen enough bad photography to believe this is not entirely incorrect either). I wouldn’t be doing what I do if I did. I might not be the key to the new generation of photography, but I guess every helping hand counts. I believe the key is in the way we perceive photography. Many perceive good photography as being equivalent to technically correct photography. While this may sometimes be a part of what good photography is, it is a very shallow view, and mostly a detrimental one. Again we have to take a step back and rethink in what context we are viewing photography in the first place. If we are looking at photography purely for photography’s sake – that is, just as a means of capturing something out there – then we are viewing photography as a craft, and in that sense, technique is certainly a pretty large part of the success of a photograph. If, however, we want to view photography as an art form, then the picture changes completely. First of all, the focus shifts away from photography per se, and moves onto the artist. This is a key element, and cannot be stressed enough. We need to start viewing photography as the means to an end rather than the end per se. It is an artistic medium which the artist chooses to make use of to achieve his or her goal, and not the goal itself. Secondly we need to shift our view away from the individual photograph and onto the bigger picture. The value of an artist’s work is the concept, and how it is presented. Judging an artist by looking at one piece of work is akin to judging a novel by reading one paragraph. While one piece of work can give an idea of the skill of the artists, and while some works tend to be remebered more, and may eventually become representative of the artist, it is the whole body of work of the artist that defines him or her. The body of work of artists is the translation of their values, thoughts and beliefs into something physical, and every part of that body needs to be viewed with the whole concept in mind. If we look at the greatest artists (including photographers) of the past century, it becomes clear that whatever they did was centred around a concept or passion they had, and which they represented through their life and through their work.
Art has changed greatly throughout the past decades, and if we are to understand art in the way it deserves to be, we must first of all remove preconceptions about artistic media, and then start asking the right questions when viewing a work of art. It is certainly not about aesthetics, and whether this would look nice hanging in the room with the new persian rug, but about the connection which the work creates with the concept, and eventually, with the artist.
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