Nowadays
photography is referred to as a visual art bringing it into line
with the more traditional painting, drawing and sculpture, to name
some of the most obvious visual art forms.
What
confounds me with photography is the obsession with the equipment and
processes to the detriment of the image. After all, the camera is
only the paint brush that allows the artist to convey their vision of
the world, and yet photographs get bogged down in all the beguiling
wizardry of what is essentially a little black box with or without a
lens attached at one end and some light sensitive material with a
switch that lets the light flood in when pressed.
If
you have one of these wonderful bits of wizardry, should you not do
it justice and make wonderful compelling images? The real crime is
that most of these pictures languish on a computer or photo sharing
site are not necessarily the best you can produce? - those you feel
are really well crafted will they ever see the light of day as a
print or photograph hanging on the wall or better still someone
else's?
The
most important part of this symbiosis is the eye and mind behind the
box. Without it, these boxes are fancy bits of sculpture sitting on a
shelf and yet we talk non-stop about this feature or other. That at
the end of the day the image you make will not throw it's hands up in
the air and stamp it's feet because you are not using the latest most
expensive technology!
The images that appear here are a mix of digital and film.