(embiggenable) • µ4/3
(embiggenable) • µ4/3
(embiggenable) • µ4/3
A FEW ENTRIES BACK, I WROTE, re: my gas station pictues:
"...I believe that my hesitency to embrace this project is the fact that I do not have a clear-in-my-head project intent. That is to write, that, were I to be pressed to write an artist statement, re: this project, at this point it would be a rather rambling, un-focused statement."
That statement incited a response form Thomas Rink:
"Is an artist statement or a written concept really required? Visual aesthetics does not work on a conceptual (language) level - a picture says more than a thousand words...so, is an artist statement essentially no more than a means to combat our fear not to "make sense" to others?
I have forever been an advocate of/for the artist statement. Whenever I have felt compelled to write / speak in defense of the artist statement, it has usually been as a response the idiotic opinion that a picture that needs words is a failure. That written, let me be a bit more specific about my feelings, re: the artist statement.
First and foremost, iMo, an artist statemnt should be, as the saying goes, short and sweet. And, it should refrain from attempting to "explain" anything about the photo(s) which accompany the statement other than to inform-avoiding pretentious artspeak-a viewer about what instigated the picture maker's desire to make the photo(s). In other words, never, ever put thoughts in a viewer's mind about what the photo(s) "mean".
As an example, an artist statement, re: my gas station pictures, might read something like this...
THERE USED TO BE MEN (AND WOMEN) IN COVERALLS
(WITH GREASY HANDS)
While driving with a friend, I noticed the need to get some petrol. As we approached a "new fangled" gas station cum
minimaxi mart, the thought occurred to me that, in my life time, the manner in which I/we got petrol had changed considerably.
As a result of that change, the landscape has, in many places, become littered with relics of the places where we used to get petrol. Many of these relics are abandoned, a few still sell petrol and a few have been repurposed for other business pursuits. In any event, the fact is that most of these "traditional" gas stations have literally disappeared.
While I have pictured some "traditional" gas station remains, I have not been able to picture the men and women in coveralls (with greasy hands) who have completely disappeared from the gas station landscape inasmuch as one no longer needs to interact with a human while getting petrol.
After reading the above artist statement, it is then up to a viewer to "make sense" of what the pictures "mean" to him/her self. To engage in deduction, speculation, and fantasy based upon what he/she brings, life experience and knowledge, to the viewing. Or, as Paul Strand stated:
"Every artist I suppose has a sense of what they think has been the importance of their work. But to ask them to define it is not really a fair question. My real answer would be, the answer is on the wall.