October 20, 2018
James Agee, "They have begun with the massive yet delicate beauty of most things which are turned out most cheaply in great tribes by machines: and on this basis of structure they are changed into images and marvels of nature." From his great work, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,' with another great man, photographer, Walker Evans.
Physical space is only an object present in our outer vision. Without objects that create distance between themselves physical space doesn't exist. We are obviously distracted by our vision in spacial distance. We react instinctively in a visionary conquest. To identify our hunted object we immediately want to know is it alive and dangerous or is it benign and complacent to our authority.
Some photographers see the world through conquest. Getting the image at any cost. Whether it is a street scene, a landscape or portrait, they are on the attack and the culprit of this intense aggression of shooting is ego.
We have become visual animals and as animals we are always looking for our prey. It is less bloody sometimes with a camera than a gun.
We have had many great street photographers that got addicted to the pursuit of human prey, an intense need to capture moments in passing time, as if they were stopping the advent of age and dissolving the mysteries of eternal life. What they forgot to take into account is that life as we know it, is time. That time is the illusion of progress. That time is the fruit we all want to pick. Time is the golden fleece we must capture. Times truth is an illusion just as image creation is an illusion. Time never stops and has no desire to be exploited by instances of shutters being pressed as if these creations mean anything but a simple memory of a future never lived. These frozen moments express the futility of progress, the futility of living your own life. We are all fragments of others picture of us and we are labeled by that as their reality. We are better than that. We are unique individuals and we can live a life in transformations.
We have become addicted to stopping our aging process knowing the dark oblivion that waits to capture us in it's dark sights.
Physicality is the breakage of inner consistency. It is the drama that increases our desirers need for more, as we try and move through our unique perspective. Physical life is a weight hard to bare and it is an isolating loneliness of perception. Time is anonymous, its pleasure is accumulating physical artifacts of who we are not.
The mental makeup of a photographer is one of capturing the elusive moment of perception. Each perception is unique and original if one really decides to stop their internal motion forward and perceive the structure of time stop as you bring your absolute focus into this plane of existence and unravel the scene before you as you would a jigsaw puzzle. Your unique scene is for your eyes only.
Intuition plays a big part in making imagery. We can get caught up in the surface reflections, the glitter of imposters distracting you from your inner vision.
To create good imagery you have to be yourself. You have to dig deep within you to bring forth to the surface your inner faith in your present reality. Yes, your reality will change and you will have ups and downs as your life's illusive nature precedes but if you stay on course to what brings you visual happiness, you will not be accepted by the anonymous masses but by what you created that relates to human beings following their own individual paths. Your path can crisscross other paths and give inspiration to other beings trying to find their way in this over saturated industry of greed, and accumulation of the almighty dollar.
The illusion of wealth is a physical promenade of surface expression. It is shallow and its behavior is destructive not only to the people trying to represent themselves as gods of avarice but to society as a whole becoming addicted to being seen and liked for
the imposter, the glory of a structured facade.
What kind of example is this for children to be given social media devices at an early age. To have them retreat from experiencing the activities of play in the external world for play in a device, a life of technology, instant visual nonsense. This play demeans the purpose of growing up and it also creates a shallowness of expression with a brain enamored with the lights of illusions and not the joy of the natural wonder of creation which eventually becomes their creations of unique purpose.
Their brains now becoming in tune to the quick acceptance of information not the in depth truth of their own inner vision. With hooks in their minds eye these kids can only break free when they get older and finding their lives are not integrated into a community of thoughtful interaction but an online experience of overwhelming meaningless exaggerations.
Frailty of inner life. To be oneself at all costs creates a distance from the known universe. It takes courage and determination to break free from the controlling thoughts of propaganda and reach beyond the cliched life of the wealthy and become your vision, your independent being in creation.
Your photography skills should have nothing to do with adding more snap shots to the tsunami of images that are overwhelming our senses.
These images represent the carrot in front of the masses. By posting your images you can get the corporations to supply you with clothes and accessories to make the images of people look more authentic and modern.
We are not surface dwellers looking for the easy replicas of passing fads that continue to surface in order to get you to buy the latest and greatest equipment which they claim will to take your images to a new high.
Any camera used in unison with your intuitive mind will create images of our internal struggle to free ourselves from the slavery of conformity.
With our visual understanding of what our inner aesthetic is trying to accomplish we see clearly the attempt of corporate media to corrupt the intuitive instincts of the photographer by praising and highlighting the shallow redundancy of copycat images populating text books as a means to represent the inner conformity of expression. We are not what we photograph, we are what we create in the photograph that will override the need to be someone else.
We seem to demand conformity and repetition to the natural discovery of ourselves as different beings from each other and our voice is powerful when it has gained a truth represented by a creative force of natural selection.
Taking pictures is dulling the intuitive mind, allowing the intellect to drive us further from our unique vision. If we abandoned personal expression and follow the leaders calling to imitate a life not your own then you will become a mass herd of barbarians at the gate of futility.
Images lie, and the more people take snap shots the better chance of our senses being overloaded with false identities of so called truthful representations. It is so easy to exaggerate or diminish the subjects in the picture.
It is not that those subjects weren't present in the frame when the photographer created the image. All the elements in the image are real in a sense and must be in order to project its authenticity to the millions of eyes drooling for more drama, happiness, mayhem etc....
Images can't tell truth from the lies. An image relies on the photographer's integrity to explain the image in a caption so the viewing public can trust that this image wasn't a false representation of the truth.
What the viewer doesn't know is what took place prior to and after the click of the shutter. The truth in the image has to be felt and understood before one can accept the image as a piece of a real event snatched out of context and presented to the public as real.
We make images now to copy something we saw on social media. The same thing happens when we go to an historical monument and to cities around the world. We saw the travel brochure that defined our intellects purpose so we too have come to take pictures of that narrow perspective.
An image's truth is not acceptable if it varies and waggles something that breaks free from the mind of conformity, that has already judged the scene with a preformed projection of a belief system structured in intellectual irons.
Your personal vision will not be understood by the masses. There will always be critics of your work but you must have your images speak your visual language that you worked hard to create in order for you to have your truth spoken for your efforts.
