It is probably clear from reading my "Artist's Statement" (see the "About" link above) that I am something of a "formalist." "Formalism describes the critical position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form – the way it is made and its purely visual aspects – rather than its narrative content or its relationship to the visible world." https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/formalism
I appreciate documentary photography, travel photography, as well as photographs designed specifically to get across a point of view or a position about the world. As they say, "One picture is worth a thousand words." So for instance, a picture of a melting ice cap, can communicate a great deal about global warming.
But where my photography is concerned, I am driven simply by the thing itself...how it fits together. As my artist's statement has it, I am looking for a small piece of reality that expresses wholeness and where the hope of something better shines through.
This approach certainly leaves itself open to the criticism that it is disengaged from reality and from important issues of the day. But I think that Robert Adams hits the nail on the head. In his book, "Art Can Help" he "advocates art that evokes beauty without irony or sentimentality, art that 'encourages us to gratitude and engagement, and is of both personal and civic consequence.'" (from the cover flap)
This marks me as something of a dinosaur. And that is fine with me. I accept that there are many different kinds of photography and some varieties are in season and others are not. What is important for me, certainly at this point in my life, is doing what makes me happy. We will see how it all develops. But for right now at least, that is, "The View from Here."
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