family in a tree
morning reading with coffee and feet
canoes and garden
Ths entry will be an attempt to explain / write about my "serious" intentions, re: the new snapshot pictures. It is not an artist statement but will undoubtedly be the basis for one.
When I first set about to make so-called snapshots with the iPhone camera module, my intent was to see what kind of picture quality the camera module was capable of and to mimic the traditional snapshot aethetic. In addition to those goals, there was a vague notion of making a statement-rattling around in my head-about the idea of people using their phones to make billions of digital-era snapshots. Hence my project name, the new snapshot.
Along the road of this experiment, I discovered that the iPhone is capable of making good quality pictures and that I slid into the snapshot aesthetic like a fish to water. And, much to my surprise, I have really enjoyed making pictures of people with an emphasis on friends and family. Low and behold, I found that making "snapshots" can be fun and rewarding.
It should go without writing (to anyone really looking at them), that I continue to make my the new snapshot pictures with the same eye and sensibilities as I have been doing with my more "serious" ku / civilized ku pictures. At first, I tried to be more casual about picture making things such as framing and other "correct" ways of doing things but I could just not get there.
Consequently, and while my the new snapshot are seemingly about what is depicted (and they are that), my intention to "sneak" in visual things like are found in my "serious" pictures. Things like interesting framing, relationships of shapes / lines, light and dark and colors, et al. BTW, it should be obvious that the traditional snapshot drugstore border, the dirt and scratches and the attenuated tonal range are all visual slight of hand elements which; 1) reinforce the idea that the pictures are "just" snapshots, and 2) thus allowing the viewers to approach the pictures in a relaxed manner-pay no attention to man behind the curtain-there are no art things here.
Eventually, I came to realize that, with the picture making capabilities of the new snapshot cameras - aka: phones, non-serious picture makers were, in fact, making much improved snapshots than were made in the snapshot camera film era. A large viewing screen which shows exactly what is in the frame, amazingly good auto exposure / white balance capabilities and nearly endless DOF (due to the small sensor) all contribute to the ease and success of making pretty damn good snapshots.
All of that written, my most interesting discovery was that snapshots are truly timeless in their appeal. Whether they are viewed the day after they were made or many years down the road, they have an immediacy, intimacy and a universality to which viewers can relate even if they have no connection to the people, places or things depicted in the pictures.
So, let me sum up by writing that I believe my the new snapshot pictures are as "serious" and "genuine" of intent as any of my so-called "serious" work. In fact, they may represent a visual culmination of sorts of everything I have seen, heard and learned about the medium of photography and its apparatus over my 50+ year involvement with making pictures.
