Paul Graham is a Photographer I only heard of through Tom yesterday in his lecture.. Therefore felt it necessary to take a cheeky look at his works. Whilst I can enjoy his images aesthetically, I don't particularly understand them. However I don't feel that you need to necessarily understand an image to appreciate it.
I asked Tom if I could have a copy of the lecture Graham gave in 2009, that he was reading from yesterday. Again, I don't feel I understand Photography in general to entertain some of the ideologies Graham has written about, but key phrases hit home in terms of the influences of my own work- both personal and for the FMP.
"Which pictures matter? Is it the hard won photogrph, knowing, controlled, previsualised? ...Sometimes, it is the offhand snapshot made on a whim."
"But my photography doesn't always fit ito neat, coherent series, so maybe I need to roll freeform around this world... Sometimes that works, sometimes it's indulgent, but really, it's your choice, because you are also free to not make 'sense'."
-This statement affected me more than I thought it would or even intended to. To be quite frank, I wouldn't say I'm a Photographer in the slightest. I barely know how to hold a camera. I wouldn't really say I'm an Artist either, although I think I understand how to hold a paintbrush.. I guess what I'm saying after reading that quote though, is that do I really need to know all the ins and outs of f.stops, light balance and depth of field? I've always felt very judged when presenting photograps amongst my peers; there are some who do know all of these things, and I guess I just wanted to take a "proper" picture, whatever you want to call it. However recently and even more so now, I've been experimenting with what I like, be it out of focus, wonky or even under exposed. I'm searching more and more into the photographers and artists that use imagery in other ways than to simply document, to attach feeling, emotion and intertextuality into their work. I feel like that's what I'm doing. I think I feel more settled, with my imagery. More settled with what my artwork is becoming about.
"Photography is the mostcommon method via which people attempt to keep a hold of things they feel that are important. Whether it is the people we attach our affections to... the photograph can make a record of these things and, at times, can come to supersede the things photographed in terms of importance; they become the physical manifestation of our memories."
This bottom highlighted quote was taken from Tom Rodgers again, upon reading Graham's work. I connected with this too; my work definitely represents the importance that memory has in connection to photographs. I'm "all about" the idea that memories aren't really our own- how an image can portray interpretation as much as it can with truth.
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