about, ugh
I’ve been toying with the idea of an actual photo-blog for some time now.
It’s something that fits in with a slightly different way of working than I’m used to, in that you don’t process and upload everything from a shoot in one go – you generally post one image per day or so – meaning you can have images from a shoot to process/publish months after the event. I’m interested to see if/how it affects my process, and possibly the way that my images are perceived – by both myself and others. But I wasn’t happy with the idea of just randomly posting whatever I’ve been shooting, and saving it all for the blog. I’ve decided to keep it ‘themed’ (for want of a better word), so that I can just keep aside the images that fit, and post everything else on my flickr as usual. I may even post the blog images on flickr at the same time as I put them on the blog.
Enough of the mechanics though, what I’m stuck with at the moment, and it is something that’s very important to me, is the ‘about’ page. I see it as a kind of artist’s statement, because I suppose by theming the content I’m making it into a project. But I’m really struggling with drawing that line between being open and genuine about what I’m trying to do and coming across as pretentious and overly artsy. I’m trying to get beyond showing something because I think it’s pretty and I have a good idea of what I’m doing, but when I start trying to explain what it, I start to sound more and more like those awful introductions you read in galleries or on ‘Fine Art Photography’ websites, before they go on to list where the artist studied and so on. I keep coming up with phrases like ‘this work explores…’ and I almost physically gag as I type it, because if my eyes glaze over as I read it back – and it’s my own – what happens when anyone else does?
It seems like a very easy mode to fall into when you”’re trying to explain what you”’re trying to do with a series of images, but by pulling back from that you end up sounding like a standard ‘I like to take pictures with my nice shiny camera’ spiel.
This is before I even consider what to write to accompany each image – and I also have to do something similar to accompany a print in an exhibition coming up in a few weeks so it’s heavy on my mind. Ugh. Has anyone bridged the gap successfully that you’ve seen? Can you talk about your artistic motives without sounding like you”’re trying to win at bullsh*t bingo?
Julie, I think that the only person that the artists statement is important to is, well, the artist. I believe that it helps us to keep to our direction. Or, by the act of writing it, tell us something that we might not have considered. Why.
I don’t think that if I wrote an artist’s statement that anyone is going to come to my site, read it, then try to see if, in their opinion, I stuck to what I was going to do.
I think that if you are going to write one, it should make sense to you. If you want to explore the world, then that’s what you are doing. You needn’t dumb it down or make it for anyone other than yourself. My eyes glaze, too, when I start reading some artists statements, but for the most part, I stay away from them. I just want to stand and enjoy the picture. I don’t really care if they met their vision. I might read the statement if it is short, but if it tends to start at childhood and take me through their life … *yawn*.
I want to try something. I’m going to write a very brief artist’s statement about what I’m doing. Mind you, this is very much an extemporaneous activity … so I may be playing bulls*&t bingo! :
“I love to photograph. I always have, it seems. My camera is my way of simply exploring the world, often times, with no intent to produce a theme, project, or anything that might make sense to others. I’m just looking around. And looking around, is the fun of it. Everything is interesting.
–Paul Lester”
What more can I say. That is why, at the moment, I photograph. It may change 2 days from now, this evening, or by the time that I finish this post. But, it is my reason, transferred to this virtual paper.
In the end, it’s all about why you do it and how you distill it and put it on paper. I’m sure that my statement would not be haughty enough for a gallery, perhaps, but I believe that it would do just fine for me!
Julie, I think that the only person that the artists statement is important to is, well, the artist. I believe that it helps us to keep to our direction. Or, by the act of writing it, tell us something that we might not have considered. Why.
I don’t think that if I wrote an artist’s statement that anyone is going to come to my site, read it, then try to see if, in their opinion, I stuck to what I was going to do.
I think that if you are going to write one, it should make sense to you. If you want to explore the world, then that’s what you are doing. You needn’t dumb it down or make it for anyone other than yourself. My eyes glaze, too, when I start reading some artists statements, but for the most part, I stay away from them. I just want to stand and enjoy the picture. I don’t really care if they met their vision. I might read the statement if it is short, but if it tends to start at childhood and take me through their life … *yawn*.
I want to try something. I’m going to write a very brief artist’s statement about what I’m doing. Mind you, this is very much an extemporaneous activity … so I may be playing bulls*&t bingo! :
“I love to photograph. I always have, it seems. My camera is my way of simply exploring the world, often times, with no intent to produce a theme, project, or anything that might make sense to others. I’m just looking around. And looking around, is the fun of it. Everything is interesting.
–Paul Lester”
What more can I say. That is why, at the moment, I photograph. It may change 2 days from now, this evening, or by the time that I finish this post. But, it is my reason, transferred to this virtual paper.
In the end, it’s all about why you do it and how you distill it and put it on paper. I’m sure that my statement would not be haughty enough for a gallery, perhaps, but I believe that it would do just fine for me!
That’s inspiring. I think you’ve managed to hit on that level where you’re saying what you’re doing without getting too much into it using that language, but it doesn’t sound too simplistic.
Funnily enough I just did a bit of digging and came up with the other Paul’s post on artist’s statements – he seems to echo our sentiments…
http://photo-musings.blogspot.com/2006/10/artists-statements.html
That’s inspiring. I think you’ve managed to hit on that level where you’re saying what you’re doing without getting too much into it using that language, but it doesn’t sound too simplistic.
Funnily enough I just did a bit of digging and came up with the other Paul’s post on artist’s statements – he seems to echo our sentiments…
http://photo-musings.blogspot.com/2006/10/artists-statements.html
all that pretentious stuff that you read in art establishment artists’ statements… it’s all down to the vocabulary they use. there is definitely a prescribed lexicon for their utterings. someone needs to write a dictionary for translating it into normal speech :))
if someone did that, we’d find out that they are all mostly saying the same thing…