Help needed artist statement.

[jp]

If you haven't already, you might read "art and fear" and "the view from the studio door" which are quite inexpensive used and widely available. The authors seem to make art talk and explaining oneself easy.

I haven't written many artist statements. AA is so well known he's apt to be liked for a variety of reasons. I'd be very specific about why I liked AA if I liked AA, or choose an artist still known but known for something very particular.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Like many here, I have read enough artists' statements to cringe upon the prospect of reading yet another. I've also over thirty years in academe which is full of itself. The worst statements are self obsessed, narcissistic, full of self-importance, worked to death.

Given that you are young, new to the field and probably addressing elders more experienced (or hopelessly mired in academe), it is best to be humble; not to speak mainly of yourself. Be an agent to the art. Suggest that your relationship to the art and craft will be evident in your work, or not; that you are learning from failure as well as success. Speak later of your current particulars, themes, projects, if you must.

Do not get technical! One mention of stand development or full-frame integrity or format will bring doom. Do not challenge that which you haven't yet fully explored. That's for experienced philosophers.

[RodinalDuchamp]

Thank you all once again. This is the first time I'll be having to explain my work with some sort of real consequence should I not connect what I say to the actual work. All your feedback has been insightful.

[djdister]

Reader's Digest version: explain what you photograph and why, with perhaps more emphasis on the "why"

[Andrew O'Neill]

Well honestly in not making art to become wealthy. It would be nice but nor necessary. Unfortunately though humor can help it has to be folded into something that tells them I know what I'm doing.

I went through what your are going through now. I have never been good at talking about myself or my work. I never liked people who were fluent in "art speak", spouting mostly BS. Be honest. In the end, your work should speak for itself.
Having a few beers with my profs helped a lot, too!!

[invisibleflash]

Personally, I think you are looking for too much meaning in your images, and trying to take your
artwork too seriously. By no means am I insulting you, I think it's wonderful that you are involved
in photography. But all of this "deep" thinking can really side-track a photographer.

Look at the greats like Adams. Highly technically talented, but not over thinking the image. He
pre-visualized his images, altering the reality to fit his vision through simple means (filtration and exposure) and
absolutely loved being in nature, capturing it's beauty. He was emotional about his subject, I
think it was love of the landscape. He wanted to do it's beauty justice in the finished print.

You mentioned the abandoned NASA sites you've photographed. What hit me when you mentioned them, is that
those sites were part of a massive effort which lead us to go to the moon. Pad 34 at Kennedy. A crumbling concrete structure. This was the site
of a turning point in the American Space Program. On Apollo 1, three Astronauts died on the launchpad during a
fire during a test. If that accident hadn't happened, huge changes in design of the Apollo Capsule may never have been made,
and we may have failed in the challenge Kennedy put to the nation. "I think this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal
of landing a man on the moon, before this decade is out, and returning him safely to the earth". But here they sit in decay.
Why did we go to the moon? Why did our entire country work together for this goal? Answer: Simple. To beat the Russians.
Ultimately, the race to the moon was political. Does anyone today in the young generation care? Unfortunately not.
And look at the political state of the world today...look at the state of NASA today. Americans are getting to the
International space station aboard Russian rockets. Decay decay.

So, if you are looking for meaning, or parallelism in your work...look at the decay of the NASA sites, and how it parallels
the decay of a country and it's ability to focus on a common goal. Impossible in todays America.
Is this too deep? Sure it is. It's simply the opinions of a 45 year old man. In the end, simplicity in an image has
the most impact. A viewer of your work may simply see the crumbling concrete structure that has been printed to perfection
and Selenium toned...or an old fart, might see the relic of a bygone era of greatness. Don't overthink it.

Art devotees / intellectuals love overthinking!

Meatyard worked a lot in his home town. Check him out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Eugene_Meatyard

I don't like artists' statements. Nor do I like naming my pix. I don't I like it when people ask me what my pix means.

Burt Glinn:

The problem about writing about photography is that taking pictures seems so simple. Of course it is not, but explanations why it is not have led to some very defensive, somber, arcane a pretensions prose. Pretentiousness is more harm to good photography than automated exposure.

As a doc photog if I have to explain my pix too much it is a failure. Although sometimes a little backstory may be needed for the less than obvious pix. Since I deal with many museums and institutions they like to hear something along those lines so I oblige with a statement, naming pix and the like. Sure, you can get by with 'Untitled #1','Untitled #2' 'Untitled #18' etc. But if you have thousands of prints out in nearly a hundred institutions like I do then it is very tough with all that untitled work.

See if anything in my bio can help you with drafting your statement. I refined it over time, so just start writing one and refine it.

http://biographyofdanieldteolijr.tumblr.com/

I don't keep records of when my pix are shown. I'm not into this for making $. But for the rest of you it is good to list your exhibition dates. I've only had a few exhibitors anyway and none were one man. My efforts are placed in obtaining the exalted status of being part of the permanent collection.

Here are 2 photogs long dead that I respected. When I don't know what to say I sometimes quote the old masters. Read up on photogs you admire.

Ernst Hass

"There are black and white snobs, as well as colour snobs. Because of their inability to use both well, they act on the defensive and create camps. We should never judge a photographer by what film he uses- only by how he uses it."


Burt Glinn...written in 1980/81

"Our world is so flooded with photographic images that when we preconceive we end up, probably unwittingly, taking pictures of pictures we have seen."

Both quotes from the 1981 book World Photography by Bryn Campbell.

Good luck!

[CropDusterMan]

I used to love it when "intellectuals" would go into endless analyzation of a specific photographers gallery images who I'd been working for.
They went into great detail about how the image captured the essence of this or that, about evoking emotion and the artists intent etc etc.
Wonderful as their imagery and diction was, it was nothing more than a bunch of drivel. Opinion.

Some photographers talk endlessly about their work, it's painful. And most of the time it's mere self inflation. Jim Nachtwey on the other hand...one
of the greatest war photographers of his generation...getting anything out of him is like pulling teeth. His work stands alone. Right there and in your face.
John Szarkowski once commented on the work of Ansel Adams, saying that upon viewing one of Adams photos, the printing and capture...
you could almost tell the weather...time, season, temperature and humidity of his images. Ultimately, the images speak for themselves, and
endless talk and analyzation almost does them an injustice.

One thing I will say, I have really enjoyed everyones input on this thread....got me to "thinking"! LOL.

[paulr]

I really don't understand why people conflate all thinking with bad thinking.

If we conflated all photography with bad photography, we'd just go home and give up.

[Jody_S]

If they are against the 'documentary' part of photography, and what you have been doing is essentially capturing the feel of a place, then I'm going to go completely off-the-wall and suggest you watch the movie Vernon, Florida, by Errol Morris. Read up on how he came to make the movie. He didn't try to document Vernon, Fl so much as he used Vernon as the raw material to create something that would capture the attention for the duration of a movie. He was extraordinarily successful, IMHO, I was spellbound when I watched it.

[DrTang]

Vernon Fl is an odd movie as he first set out to 'document' that areas peculiar business of lopping off parts of ones body to collect industrial accident payouts.. but when he started..the locals DID NOT LIKE THAT..so he turned his movie cameras into other areas of the place

for more fun: Gates of Heaven