kitchen sink ~ all photos embiggenable
landscape urban
still life
single women
twigs / tangles / thickets
landscape nature
street
in situ
WRITING–IN 3 ENTRIES–UNDER THE RUBIC OF “BONES’ M. Johnston has informed his readers that “every creative effort in every artistic medium needs bones: a structure to guide the work and give it a framework. A concept.” You might ask, what are “bones” and his answer is that it is “an idea” aka: “any intellectual notion that facilitates and motivates working. And–(sarcasm alert) this is really good one–he also throws in the idea that:
“(I confess to never having liked the phrase "caught my eye.")…..They want to haphazardly grab any "photo opportunity" that happens to pass their way….they'll say something like, "I just take the camera when I go for a walk and photograph anything that catches my eye." That seems like a dreadfully weak-dishwater idea for working, a framework for little more than desultory camera-pointing.”
To which I reply, good f____ing grief, what a bunch of condescending bourgeois bunkum and balderdash. I mean, why would someone, when walking around with a camera and something catches their eye–in my case, pricks my eye and sensibilities–NOT make a f–––ing picture of it? Making pictures is what photographers do and they don’t need no stinkin’ “intellectual notion” to “facilitate and motivate working.”
Upon reading the idea of “intellectual notion”, the very first thought that came into my head was Sontag’s notion of the revenge of the intellect on art cuz I believe that anyone who looks for an “intellectual notion” to facilitate / motivate the making of their photographs is headed down the wrong road. Simply written, iMo, making a picture is not an intellectual pursuit. It is, plain and simple, a visual pursuit, the results of which are manifested as a visual manifestation, aka: the culmination and subsequent visual representation of the act of seeing… not of thinking.
All of the above written, let me express my take on the idea of facilitating / motivating one’s self to “get one past not-doing and into doing”….
…. in my experience, I have noticed that when a picture maker is experiencing a lack of enthusiasm for getting out and making pictures it is due precisely to the fact that they are sitting around on his/her lazy ass trying to come up with an idea about something to photograph instead of just getting out the door—or at least just getting off their lazy ass–and start making pictures. That is, pictures of any thing(s) that catches their eye.
To write it very emphatically, there is absolutely nothing f–––ing wrong with making pictures in order to just see what something looks like when photographed–especially so in order to see what it looks like when photographed by you. And here’s the thing about this exercise; after a period of time, you might just surprise yourself by realizing that, in your (sarcasm alert) “desultory” and “dreadfully weak dishwatery” camera pointing, there just might be a few pictures of referents / themes that you have unintentionally but repeatedly responded to that just might create the foundation for further picture making investigation.
Point in fact, all of my bodies of work, with just one exception, evolved from–as M. Johnston might put it –my “desultory” and “dreadfully weak dishwatery” camera pointing (discursive promiscuity, as I put it). That is to write that, as an example, I did not start my kitchen sink body of work by thinking that I should photograph my kitchen sink. Rather, I realized after of period time during which I made a few pictures of my kitchen sink, among many other referents, that, surprise, surprise, there was something, picture making wise, worth exploring further along that line of photographic inquiry. And that example is true of all of my various bodies of work (see examples above).
So, here’s my point–or is it a counterpoint to M. Johnston’s point? I don’t need no stinkin’ intellectual idea to facilitate / motivate my picture making. Rather, I rely upon my continuing desire to see what some thing(s) looks like when photographed–especially so when photographed by me. While my way of working ain’t gonna necessarily work for everyone, iMo, if your wheels are stuck in the station, instead of rootin’ around in your head for an idea, try rootin’ around with your eyes in order to see what your eyes might see.
Don’t be a bonehead. After all, it is a f–––ing visual medium.
PS Next up: a critique of Johnston’s thoughts, re: the Artist Statement.
