Settler's Gate

Three things that start with the letter "W".

Walking    Wondering    Waiting

Over the last three days, I've unknowingly adhereded to this shceme.  I found it by asking my self a question concerning the state of my art.  Which itself started as a question concerning the value others seem to place on the trueness of a photograph.  I'll start there again.

Sitting in Luck Joe's, showing my small book to a waitress, she asked, "Is this Photoshopped?"

"Yes, everything is.  Photoshop is one of my favourite tools."

She continued flipping through the images and, I think, complimented them before going back to work.

The essence of this question is, perhaps, "Can I believe this as a true photograph?"  Which is the repetition of the SOOC crap, anti-HDR crap, artist vs. reporter crap, and... (this is the exact moment I became bored with the argument).

Both sides of that discussion are ridiculous.  Side A: The river is here every day, it never changes.  Side B: The river is always changing, every day it different.

Explain that yourself.

The action of capturing a percise moment in time as a still image is by design an abstraction of reality.  anything more is an embellishment.  it is the intent behind that embellishment which can offer definition to the image.  arguing against intent, is futile, masteurbatory, and reteric.

From there I asked myself something about my intent as it relates to my means.  I find something while I am walking around.  It will get into my memory and from there a conversation will take place deep in a subconscious realm, while my imagination begins to wonder about that thing.  Then I will wait.

That's the formula.  Let me demonstrate it in a slightly more tangible manner.

The object in the photo above was originally found while hiking on my birthday.  I stopped to consider it twice, each time without a camera.  I thought it would be a great place to take some photos and then went back to stomping into the frozen snow.  Three weeks later, I didn't have much motivation to shoot but for some reason I went out and started racing the sun, because of a suspicion that something really wonderful might be coming.  This spot is close to my apartment and that's where I went.  Technically speaking, the image above has been manipulated from it's original group of negatives.  Lots of tools were used to beat the thing into submission.  All of the tools I use are available to anyone, except two.  Imagination and Awareness.  As an artist, those are the most powerful tools I have.

I walked (actually ran) to this old gate.  I wondered why I was there.  I waited for an answer.