WARNING: this entry is a test / experiment. I will fill you in on its intent and results in a couple days.
IN 1945 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART MOUNTED an exhibition of 350 photographs called The American Snapshot. Most reviewers asserted that the pictures…
“…. constituted the most vital, most dynamic, most interesting and worthwhile photographs ever assembled by MOMA”. Praised as being “without artistic pretension” and coming “nearer to achieving the stature of true art than any of the inbred preciosities in the museum’s permanent collection or of in any of its previous shows,” the photographs were applauded as “honest, realistic, human and articulate.”
This excerpt from the book The Art of the American Snapshot ~ 1888-1970 is presented cuz I wanted to write about–under my recently adopted propensity for advice giving–making photographs that are honest, realistic, human and articulate and without artistic pretension. Therefore…
ADVICE #2 - stop trying to make art and just concentrate on making photographs.
re: inbred preciosities / artistic pretensions; in the recent movie, A Complete Unknown, there is scene where Dylan and Baez are discussing song writing–Baez is both perplexed and amazed by Dylan’s song writing and is wondering how the hell he does it. Dylan mentions something about his songs being “magically written-a different kind of penetrating magic”.* When she asks Dylan about her song writing, he responds with, “you try too hard.”**
The point, iMo, re: that conversation, is that Dylan, when writing, relied on / trusted a “deep” connection to something he did not necessarily understand and let it flow. On the other hand, Baez, when writing, was hard at work trying to make it work. Kinda a classic example of let it go vs. holding on too tight.
Now I realize that this entry could veer dangerously close to a touchy-feely / singing-Kumbia-around-the- campfire / hippy-dippy free-your-mind exercise. But, here’s the thing, I truly believe that, in the making of something that might, after the fact of making, be considered (by someone other than you) as art, ya gotta feel it, not think it. Ya just gotta let go of the inbred “rules”, conventions, crowd thinking, et al and just do what feels right to your eye and sensibilities.
And, by all means, remember that you are making a photograph, not art, cuz a photograph, by its intrinsic nature, is not art. Rather, it is a mute document that depicts a segment snatched from the real world. What allows a photograph to transcend its “pedestrian”, documentary function–dare I write, to become art–is when a viewer thereof is incited–driven by the photographer’s unique vision–to “see” (feel) something that resides beyond the literally depicted referent.
All that written, lets circle back to the “honest, realistic, human and articulate and without artistic pretension” idea. I believe that the only manner in which to make such photographs is to adopt the amateur snapshot approach to making photographs; something pricks your eye and/or sensibilities then you point your picture making device and activate the shutter release. No thoughts whatsoever to the question, is it art? Cuz, ya know, you ain’t making art, you are just making a photograph.
*something he said he eventually lost and never got back.
**after pointing out that her singing reminded him of the paintings on his dentist’s waiting room walls. Ouch.
