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| FLASH |
Its is an obvious truth
that an artist makes, or constructs, his painting or sculpture. It is
not so obvious in a photograph which seems ( and so often is) simply
a two-dimensional slice of reality. Occasionally though, I am more
aware of the concept that comes as or before the image is taken. I am
then *constructing an image, putting it together, to
express that overarching idea; - not simply taking it as is from
nature.
I walk beside the sea on
an overcast winter day and see the *beacon that marks a rugged
promontory. Although it is a dark day, it is not that
dark and the beacon light is turned off, but high above, the sun
is creating a soft pool of light in the clouds. In a flash I realize
that I could alter my position so the light is repositioned directly
behind the dark lens. Click! I move on but keep thinking about the
image I have just made. Later, when I process the photo with a more
analytical slant of mind I feel the power of the image and understand
the beacon to be a powerful symbol in human thought, an archetype,
and the light behind the lens as a way to engage the viewer in a
'flash' of perception. Light, but not lit, not real, but more than
real: a paradox. I 'photo-shop' to emphasis the intent of the
image: principally darkening the outer parts and gently creating a
halo around the light.
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| AWAY |
Weeks later I return on another cloudy day with a definite plan in mind that will show another take on the symbolism of a beacon. I place a camera on its tripod facing the beacon, set the shutter release for ten seconds, and step forward into the right hand side of the camera's view. Click! Here is the beacon on the left and the back of my legs on the right. The completed photo though, is hopefully not about me as much as it is about the power of the beacon to convey a metaphorical message. When we look into the image we link the near figure, who is a stand-in for ourselves, with the beacon in the mid distance. With that prominent symbol to guide us, we see from a dark overcast place far out into the brighter sky, the gleaming ocean and distant islands beyond; and of course at a more personal level this can be read as metaphor. The image has its origin in my own dreams and desires, but what I have crafted reaches out to catch the minds of others who can also, in their own way, relate to the guiding light of a beacon and read their own lives into the photograph.
I found while thinking
through and selecting the elements that went into the second image
that constructing an image was difficult to get my mind around. I am
so accustomed to seeing something that attracts me and adjusting my
composition to bring out the 'word' of what is in front of me. To
reverse the process and start with an idea and then find the
appropriate parts and organize them as expression was challenging.
Although, as the creator,
I have thought about and made these images, I really wish the viewer
to simply encounter them and experience a flash of understanding, to
dive in and have their own parallel experience.
..........................................................
*The Beacon
A beacon was originally
associated with fire on a hill top warning of approaching danger or
of some great event that all should know about. A light that was a
message. It is the ancient power of this symbol that tugs at our
unconscious minds even when today we might simply see a lighthouse on
a bold headland.
Navigation lights are on
buoys, beacons and lighthouses, just to mention a few, and flash
their coded signals though the night to guide ships that are working
their way among unseen hazards. While sailing the Pacific,at the end
of a passage from Fiji, I remember our approach to land in the
predawn darkness where the horizon ahead was a maze of blinking
lights marking an important pass (Havannah passage) into New
Caledonia. We sailed closer, consulted our less-than-perfect chart
and tried to work out what each repeating pattern of flashes
represented. Then came the dawn and all was made clear. In our case a
beacon and its guiding light was where metaphor and reality met.
I wonder though, as more
of us spend our lives in cities, separated from direct relationship
with sea and landscape, sailing, fishing, hunting and farming, how
our languages, - verbal and visual -, with their structures of
imagery inherited from the past, can retain their ability to
communicate in a rich and fulsome way. I make these images that rely
on a viewer's gut feeling for 'Beacon', but if that has no real
resonance, then we both have missed the mark.
*Constructed photographs
are usually thought to be the combining of elements from more than
one image in a photoshopping program. I have used this term here to
describe thinking about and organizing the elements in front of my
lens to express an idea that is not naturally part of the landscape.
In 'Flash', the sun has been oriented behind the lens to create a
paradox about light. The 'Away' image is created by placing the parts
before the camera in a particular arrangement to express an idea
about a beacon as psychological as well as physical reality: a
guiding light.
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