I’ve always been of the school of thought that art is that which we use for expression of the self. The imagination is not constrained by the rules that hamstring the sciences and one can use almost any medium imaginable to express that imagination. And that expression can be on any level from the obvious to the completely abstract. In essence, art is what we make it.
Effectively expressing one’s self obviates the need to master a given medium. Da Vinci could not have painted the Mona Lisa without first knowing how to effectively combine the canvas, paint, and brush to achieve the effect he wanted. Mastering the medium is all about achieving the desired effect.
Part of art instruction, aside from learning the myriad of media available, is challenging the student to find new ways to express the self. It’s one thing to simply put forth the objective, but it’s a different thing entirely to put forth the self in a way that challenges the artist and stirs something in the viewer. Once the artist is able to tap the imagination in terms of expression, the sky is pretty much the limit.
Consider this picture:
This sculpture is part of the Menil Collection in Houston, TX. I set to shoot this to make it look as if the branches were springing forth from the obelisk. I thought with the contrast from the backlight I would achieve that effect. A quick glance shows that I achieved that effect in the actual object, but closer inspection shows the distinction between the branches and the broken obelisk body. I submitted the printed photo for critique.
The teacher praised me for coming close to achieving what I wanted, but then told me that aside from achieving my stated effect, I really did little more than document art produced by somebody else. I was a little deflated because I was proud of the picture, but I knew he was right in his assessment. In essence I had mastered the medium as far as what I wanted to do, but I had not challenged myself into representing the subject in a different manner.
Fast forward about 4 months and I find myself trying to find something to do with my camera. I was doing up some barbecue of the slow smoked kind and decided to take some shots in my backyard. I thought my back fence would be a good subject for expressing decay since, even though it is still standing, is nearing the end of its useful life. Here is the shot I thought best represented the decay I was seeing:
After stewing over this one (and publishing it on Primordial Light) I started to think that there was something missing. I still can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something missing. I see decay, but then what? The sunlight coming through really didn’t add anything to the picture.
I had spent much of my time over the past 3 months concentrating on concert photography and had not really done anything else. I thought back to what my Photography professor had said about the obelisk picture and realized while I was creating art, I was not challenging myself or the viewer.
I decided to offer up the challenge to myself and here are the new and improved obelisk and fence photos:
The same images taken in new directions with very different results. One person I spoke with gave me 2 different reactions after looking at the photos.
Now I challenge you to let me know what you think after seeing these pictures. In the words of my buddy Mark – “Don’t be afraid to comment on the photos”.