February 16, 2015

Imagination, Fantasy, Dream practice, Meditation... all of these bring forth the fundamental gift all humans have and that is the desire in living life to transcend this sticky reality we all share.  Sometimes we get caught up with distractions that move us away from a purposeful life and into a herd mentality of imitation. The art culture wakes us up to this wonderful world of personal expression.  

We are becoming distracted by the shallow social media entertainment industry that doesn't have at its core inspiration but moves us like children to a candy store of fragmented scrap book imagery.

These images were never meant to be posted relentlessly on the web. Their authenticity is with family members that enjoy getting together during the holiday season and invariably these photo albums would come out to be reminisced about with family friends and relatives.

We are less inclined to appreciate the great images if we are dumbed down into thinking an instant thoughtless snap shot can equal the intensity of a studied subject through a connected photographer with his subject.

The art of photography is a gift to the world, a manifestation of the artists intent, to stimulate the viewer into thinking about this world in a deeper way. The great images of the past and the great images being created today are being overwhelmed by the banal content being supplied to the web. Everyone is an artist. And the more we see of this mediocre everyday snap shots we miss the important subjects being created that can give us a deeper understanding of our lives and our future.  But just maybe that is the whole purpose of the social media websites to distract us into becoming more look alike nondescript personalities, all thinking in shallow pools of a common mediocrity.  The more mindless information we are exposed to the less we know.  Images that have a purpose need to be looked at more than a few seconds. They need to be studied and thought about. We are not image jumpers, we are focused eyes on works of art.

Separation now is part of the image creation. We don’t experience reality we take pictures of it and then post our results as we would put money into a parking meter. With only a few seconds of viewing time allowed.

Ernst Haas wrote, "You will have to decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create. Reports of facts, essays, poems-you want to speak or to sing? There are almost too many possibilities.  Photography is in direct proportion with our time: multiple, faster, instant.  Because it is so easy it will be difficult.  Since we can photograph almost anything we are again at a new beginning.  There is a photographic explosion in the world.  Its the glamour profession.  Everybody takes pictures, everybody can copy trends or styles... Only a vision-that is what one must have."  This quote by Ernst Hass was from the book 'World Photography' edited by Bryn Campbell, published in 1981.  

In creating meaningful imagery all you need is complexity of thoughts reduced to light play on your camera sensor.