antiquark
Derek Ross
Does anyone have a personal mission statement or guiding principle for their photographic endeavors? I've been taking a long break from attempting photography as an art form. (I still photograph the wife and kids and vacations etc). But in an artistic sense, it finally dawned on me that I had no artistic goal. It was more like, "hey, I'll take a picture of that, maybe that's artistic!"
I would be interested to hear what guides you in an artistic sense!
I would be interested to hear what guides you in an artistic sense!
mfogiel
Veteran
The same principle, which has guided this fellow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux2.jpg
RichC
Well-known
My artist's statement (as used in contemporary art galleries, magazines, etc.):
In short, my photography comments on today's society and culture - advances in technology, politics, peoples' drives and compulsions... I am particularly drawn to science, time and memory, and it is possible to see all my photographs as memento mori.
I rarely photograph spontaneously, and have few snaps of friends and family. Instead, ideas and thoughts sometimes pop into my head, and I work out how best to explore these using photography - how and what to photograph. So, I'm photographing my ideas, feelings and opinions rather than simply what I encounter and find visually interesting. Meaning comes first. Because of this deliberate approach, I generally have a very good idea of how my pictures will look before leaving the house!
I know some dislike the phrase "lens-based images", but I use that deliberately as what I do is mainly but not exclusively photography, and my art makes use of both still and moving images, found and appropriated photographs, etc.
"Rich Cutler has a degree in chemistry. That might not be the most obvious statement with which to announce his interest in photography – but what draws him to science lies at the heart of his fascination with lens-based image-making. There is the natural connection between the two of silver, but it is their common drive to explore and understand that compels him. Complementing his scientific background, Rich has a master's degree with distinction in photography.
Compelled by images of time and symbolism and relationships between the historical and the current, Rich complicates the fundamental precepts of photography by blurring the border between documentary and fiction."
Compelled by images of time and symbolism and relationships between the historical and the current, Rich complicates the fundamental precepts of photography by blurring the border between documentary and fiction."
In short, my photography comments on today's society and culture - advances in technology, politics, peoples' drives and compulsions... I am particularly drawn to science, time and memory, and it is possible to see all my photographs as memento mori.
I rarely photograph spontaneously, and have few snaps of friends and family. Instead, ideas and thoughts sometimes pop into my head, and I work out how best to explore these using photography - how and what to photograph. So, I'm photographing my ideas, feelings and opinions rather than simply what I encounter and find visually interesting. Meaning comes first. Because of this deliberate approach, I generally have a very good idea of how my pictures will look before leaving the house!
I know some dislike the phrase "lens-based images", but I use that deliberately as what I do is mainly but not exclusively photography, and my art makes use of both still and moving images, found and appropriated photographs, etc.
CK Dexter Haven
Well-known
There are a ton of nice ones to read at photoeye.com. Go to GALLERY > artist index > A - Z.
Vince Lupo
Whatever
I'm finding that if you want to exhibit your work, you should have an artist statement. The reason I say that is that a gallery prefers that you've been focusing on a specific idea, not merely wanting to show a collection of your 'greatest hits' (at least that's what I'm discovering from the ones I've contacted). As well, from a creative standpoint it's likely very beneficial to you. You feel like it gives you a sense of purpose.
I'm getting back into the process after a long exhibiting hiatus, and it's been interesting (and a lot of work!). Never really thought about all these seemingly random shots having any kind of connecting thread, but after having compiled the photos that have stood out for me and laying them all out, there is an overall theme at work here. Funny thing is that sometimes it takes someone else looking at your work to take notice of it/point it out. Like I'm too close to the work and can't look at it objectively.
So my artist statement has evolved over the past couple of weeks, and now I'm at a point in which I think it expresses fairly clearly where I've been and where I'm heading, and it's helping me as a guiding principle. Not that it necessarily means that I say to myself "today I'm going out to photograph 'x' and nothing else, because that's what my artist statement tells me I should be doing", but it does help to explain why I tend to focus my attention on certain elements and situations. Who knows, like the photos, the artist statement is always subject to adjustment and evolution -- kinda like us, I suppose!
This is the collection I'm presently working on, and my (current!) artist statement is contained therein: http://www.flickr.com/photos/direction-one-inc/sets/72157635064297991/
I'm getting back into the process after a long exhibiting hiatus, and it's been interesting (and a lot of work!). Never really thought about all these seemingly random shots having any kind of connecting thread, but after having compiled the photos that have stood out for me and laying them all out, there is an overall theme at work here. Funny thing is that sometimes it takes someone else looking at your work to take notice of it/point it out. Like I'm too close to the work and can't look at it objectively.
So my artist statement has evolved over the past couple of weeks, and now I'm at a point in which I think it expresses fairly clearly where I've been and where I'm heading, and it's helping me as a guiding principle. Not that it necessarily means that I say to myself "today I'm going out to photograph 'x' and nothing else, because that's what my artist statement tells me I should be doing", but it does help to explain why I tend to focus my attention on certain elements and situations. Who knows, like the photos, the artist statement is always subject to adjustment and evolution -- kinda like us, I suppose!
This is the collection I'm presently working on, and my (current!) artist statement is contained therein: http://www.flickr.com/photos/direction-one-inc/sets/72157635064297991/
Bob Michaels
nobody special
My artist's statements are only about the subject and exclude any references to photography or myself. I believe the subject of the work is the only thing that counts since my objective is to convey information about that subject. I have never seen any need to give any photographically specific information. My name appears only one time at the bottom of the artist's statement. I give no information about myself as I prefer to let my photos be the representation of me to reinforce that the exhibit is about the subject not me.
Here is an example for an exhibit earlier this year at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the Univ. of Mississippi:
These photos of normal Cuban people in their natural environment give some insight into a culture seldom understood by Americans. It is a culture basically unchanged by political events of the last half century. Economic problems result in a way of life reminiscent of many years ago without influence of the internet, mass market television, advertising, large stores and easy transportation. The photos show this social, happy, community existence.
There is a similarity of the basic Cuban culture with that of the small southern places we know well. The economic resourcefulness, close knit community, influence of religion, and pleasure derived from the basic parts of life are comparable.
Here is an example for an exhibit earlier this year at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the Univ. of Mississippi:
These photos of normal Cuban people in their natural environment give some insight into a culture seldom understood by Americans. It is a culture basically unchanged by political events of the last half century. Economic problems result in a way of life reminiscent of many years ago without influence of the internet, mass market television, advertising, large stores and easy transportation. The photos show this social, happy, community existence.
There is a similarity of the basic Cuban culture with that of the small southern places we know well. The economic resourcefulness, close knit community, influence of religion, and pleasure derived from the basic parts of life are comparable.
Boris Stupak
Well-known
My artist's statement is "Where's my check?"
Chris101
summicronia
Cool. Last time I wrote an artist statement, I mentioned that I was a chemist as well. The work was done with light sensitive metals other than silver, such as iron, vanadium and uranium, so it made sense.
One thing I decided not to do though, was to write it in the third person, as if someone else were saying that about me.
antiquark
Derek Ross
Here's a followup question: what should come first-- the statement, or the art?
Deciding the statement before taking pictures almost seems impossible... but constructing a statement after taking a bunch of pictures seems like you're just describing the pictures you've taken.
Deciding the statement before taking pictures almost seems impossible... but constructing a statement after taking a bunch of pictures seems like you're just describing the pictures you've taken.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
It is not impossible. The difference between serious artists and dilettantes is that the artists have something to say and produce a consistent and focused body of work. They decide what they're going to do, then they do it. An artists statement is simply a written description of what they want to say and how they'll do it. A guideline, an outline, a plan.
Many amateurs never understand the importance of this. They instead try to produce photos that have 'impact', that are beautiful as individual images, but the images lack depth because when you look at them together, you realize the creator of them really had nothing to say. Just a random collection of images.
RichC
Well-known
There’s a specific reason for that: it allows reviewers and others to cut and paste when writing about you - saving them effort, which may be the difference between being or not being promoted.
You’re confusing two kinds of statement: the artist’s statement and the project statement. The former introduces you and your work in general; the latter describes a particular project, omitting biographical details (they can be combined into one document, if needed). Each serves a different but crucial purpose for an artist, and both are essential - curators, collectors, reviewers, etc., need to know not only about the specific work they’re looking at but also the artist’s background.
I gave my artist’s statement above, but each of my projects has its own statement, in two versions -short and long (long is never more than a page though). Here’s the short one for my ‘Insecta’ project (www.richcutler.co.uk/photography/insecta/) - the long version can be read on my website.
Insecta
The urge for humans to classify is instinctual – a need to arrange the world around us into patterns, to form order from chaos, compels us from childhood to death. This desire became formalised in the sciences, and especially in taxonomy – the placing of creatures and plants into groups. The scientific collection so painstakingly created is traditionally seen as hermetic and privileged – akin to the archive: a repository of preserved knowledge and authority, often institutionalised in museums. But in actuality all collections are unstable, and time dissipates that which has been so carefully hoarded.
These creatures have died twice, first poisoned in killing jars, then turned by time into ruins. What remains are cul-de-sacs: their stored knowledge dissipated, their context lost.
The urge for humans to classify is instinctual – a need to arrange the world around us into patterns, to form order from chaos, compels us from childhood to death. This desire became formalised in the sciences, and especially in taxonomy – the placing of creatures and plants into groups. The scientific collection so painstakingly created is traditionally seen as hermetic and privileged – akin to the archive: a repository of preserved knowledge and authority, often institutionalised in museums. But in actuality all collections are unstable, and time dissipates that which has been so carefully hoarded.
These creatures have died twice, first poisoned in killing jars, then turned by time into ruins. What remains are cul-de-sacs: their stored knowledge dissipated, their context lost.
As Chris Crawford says, serious photographers have a body of work that is:
(a) coherent - there are underlying themes and interests common to all the photographs
(b) divided into projects - each exploring a specific idea or subject (a project can be one image, but is usually several).
So, for example, Cartier-Bresson’s work is tied together by reportage and a special kind of visual narrative (what he called the ‘decisive moment'), and ‘India 1947-48’ is one project.
Serious photographic artists don’t go out and take shots of things that interest them at random. They will have a project in mind, and will have often written a ‘project proposal’ - an outline of why and how the project is being undertaken, perhaps including a rough statement. The project proposal is just a draft document, and may change radically during the project. Artists may also keep a work book or diary for the project, with notes, comments from colleagues, rough photos, images from magazines, etc.
Consider my ‘Insecta’ project again. This started after a friend had a house moth infestation, and a visit to the insect collection of my local natural history museum, The Booth Museum. After seeing an ad on TV for the perfume Obsession, I had an idea for a project: photographing moths as a metaphor for obsession. My initial thoughts were to photograph moths being attracted to lights, and also moth collections (collecting can be a form of obsession), and I was given permission by The Booth Museum to photograph the moth collections in their vaults not open to the public. However, over several months, the emphasis of the project changed, from being about moths and obsession to exploring insect collecting in general and what eventually happens to these collections (as in my statement above) - and as the project evolved, so did my statement (it’s important to keep the project proposal up to date).
So, having a statement before taking photographs is not only possible but necessary, although the final statement may differ radically.
@And Antiquark, you write “constructing a statement after taking a bunch of pictures seems like you're just describing the pictures you've taken” as if that’s a bad thing. Why? That’s precisely the point of a statement!
Lastly, proposals and statements are not just for artists but are also crucial for other photographers such as journalists.
Sejanus.Aelianus
Veteran
Excellent. Beats mine: "Because I can."
Chris101
summicronia
Yeah, I know the reason, but I don't care. I can't write about myself in 3rd person without sounding like I have a stick up my ...
Perhaps I should tell my thoughts to someone else, who can then write it for me. Although it would probably come out sounding like one of those 'artist statement generators'.
I've linked to a few generators above. These generally do a better job than do most non-literary artists. You need to do major modification after the generation, but hey ...
jesse1dog
Light Catcher
Beware though ...
Beware though ...
... how statements can get 'mangled' in translation if you are going multinational.
Seen in 'COIL' magazine
“Cxxx Cxxxxx draws the outlines of an autofiction filled with the issue of the disappearance, finding here exactly to express herself through photography, medium, if it is, of the trace, of ” the runaway image “. Her pictures decline and spread her self in forms as various as edition, video or projection, raising consequently of the editing and the assembly of an iconographic material constituted over time, a putting in sequence from where seems able to appear the possibility of a fiction.”
Statements must express the writer/exhibitor and their rationale.
Statements must satisfy exhibition requirements.
But statements are for the viewer of the exhibition and so MUST be simple and informative for the almost casual reader - they are not there for a quick laugh or to be the subject of ridicule. How many times have you heard the comment of 'and who the h*ll do they think they are or take me for?' expressed by a reader - impact of exhibition diminished or gone completly?
Someone needs to copy check statements before they are final - beware if you don't do this!
jesse
Beware though ...
... how statements can get 'mangled' in translation if you are going multinational.
Seen in 'COIL' magazine
“Cxxx Cxxxxx draws the outlines of an autofiction filled with the issue of the disappearance, finding here exactly to express herself through photography, medium, if it is, of the trace, of ” the runaway image “. Her pictures decline and spread her self in forms as various as edition, video or projection, raising consequently of the editing and the assembly of an iconographic material constituted over time, a putting in sequence from where seems able to appear the possibility of a fiction.”
Statements must express the writer/exhibitor and their rationale.
Statements must satisfy exhibition requirements.
But statements are for the viewer of the exhibition and so MUST be simple and informative for the almost casual reader - they are not there for a quick laugh or to be the subject of ridicule. How many times have you heard the comment of 'and who the h*ll do they think they are or take me for?' expressed by a reader - impact of exhibition diminished or gone completly?
Someone needs to copy check statements before they are final - beware if you don't do this!
jesse
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
I was told never to write about yourself in the third person when forming an artist's statement. This came from a professional curator.
L Collins
Well-known
Guiding principle: Having something to say
Method: put together a body of work that says it
Statement: let the work make the statement
Method: put together a body of work that says it
Statement: let the work make the statement
Marco Milazzo
Member
This is a bit simplistic, but IMHO, there are two basic stances in photography:
1. "The world is a better artist than I am."
2. "I am a better artist than the world is."
The first group simply tries to capture interesting images that occur naturally, or with little contrivance -- HCB, Winogrand, Erwitt, Capa, et al.
The second group arranges things or manipulate things (including photo materials) to realize some personal vision. Some in this camp are Irving Penn, Mapplethorpe, Uelsman, Karsh et al.
It's not that the first group DOESN'T have a personal vision. They look in the world for manifestations of that vision. The second group creates the manifestations of their personal vision.
Are there photographers with a foot in each camp? Certainly -- lots of them, but I think you're basically in one or the other group. Your temperament has a lot to do with your choice.
-- just my 2 pence
1. "The world is a better artist than I am."
2. "I am a better artist than the world is."
The first group simply tries to capture interesting images that occur naturally, or with little contrivance -- HCB, Winogrand, Erwitt, Capa, et al.
The second group arranges things or manipulate things (including photo materials) to realize some personal vision. Some in this camp are Irving Penn, Mapplethorpe, Uelsman, Karsh et al.
It's not that the first group DOESN'T have a personal vision. They look in the world for manifestations of that vision. The second group creates the manifestations of their personal vision.
Are there photographers with a foot in each camp? Certainly -- lots of them, but I think you're basically in one or the other group. Your temperament has a lot to do with your choice.
-- just my 2 pence
shadowfox
Darkroom printing lives
I just love a new way to look at things. And this is very interesting. Thank you!
airfrogusmc
Veteran
Agree. Meyerowitz pretty much says the same thing in this trailer for documentary Everybody Street.
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/everybody-street/trailer
Out to Lunch
Ventor
Peter Wijninga has nothing to contribute to this thread. He also advised on the intake of sufficient vitamins and fiber. Peter Wijninga also wishes all of you a most Happy Holiday Season.