For me, images process in my head like lightning.  But I need them, need to see them, understand them and even experience them the way I would a living, moving moment.  Everyday I look though hundreds of portfolios looking for images that will inspire, finding images that disgust, and seeing equivalent passion amongst a community of artists who all have very different modes within the medium.  What seems to be lacking amongst our community?

Vision.

The irony…

So, where are we at?  I’d say our medium has grown a lazy eye, a voice with no vocal chords, and a young generation of image-makers influenced to produce solely for aesthetic pleasure and not for what evokes a timeless image, a slow sacrifice of the communicative possibilities of the captured reality.

It seems that even photography is troubled by the plague of unoriginality that seems to hamper other art forms where the claws of marketing and commerce become beneficial, tempting and unison in function.  I’ve always believed that all good art is derivative of pre-existing work and ideas (where would one find influence?), but where I draw the line is where concept is blurred by laziness and the images become buried by technology for technology sake.

What happened to the straight photograph?  Is it now impossible to capture beauty, universal truth and emotion without butchering the digital negative?  Photographers have always manipulated in post, hell, Ansel Adams and others along the way who’ve mastered the age old zone system of black and white photography have found that bringing out the richest blacks, the whitest possible highlight with detail — the most aesthetic pleasing qualities of the photographs can only enhance, make good photographs great.  They understood the potential of the latent photograph was far greater than a simple negative could explain – there was contrast to be found, shadow and highlight to be unearthed and vibrant color in least expected places.  But it’s not the same any more.  Photoshop and the digital realm has blessed us with the opportunity to visually explore the depths of the most surreal subconscious, to replicate our wildest images…but why?  Just because?  Great answer, dude.  I guess that is what seems to be lacking in this conversation…not the modem operandi but the thought, the reason, the message.

“But I’m not about that.  I just make beautiful images.”   That’s been my greatest dilemma as I’ve grown as an artist…fighting “cool”.  By that I mean the culture of “cool” in the art world.  Call it conceptual apathy, instant aesthetic gratification, but to create an image that enacts a gut reaction alone numbs the insides of our art form, leaving it solely to superficial recognition of the image itself……..and then we move on.

Granted society has changed and I can even look to myself.  When I look through portfolios, I spend maybe 20 seconds max looking through any…not allowing myself to recognize nuance, maybe neglecting the majority of the work I see.

Here is the original solution:  Don’t be afraid to shoot and exhibit the photograph that exists as it is.  Defy and stand up to convention….my answer to “cool” is “please elaborate.”  Critical thought is difficult…because it requires, well, thought.  But to fight the stale repetitions of the same photograph over and over again you have to show me what I’d least expect…and right now what I’d least expect is to see an image that was captured as it is, left as it is, to speak as it is.  Art is defiance.  Defiance is change.  Am I referencing the basic properties of color correction, spotting and cropping…no….I’m talking about the salvation of an image in post by means of the “steroids” Photoshop provides.  The line in this only blurs when there is solid and focused aesthetic and conceptual bond….focus and meaning.