When I actually pick up a camera and begin shooting I have decided that I am ready to make art. But before I jump into that step I must decide on my materials.
My first material is a dusting off of my phantasmagoric imagination. That sounds silly, but to be honest, if I'm not ready to unclutter my mind to figure out how I want to compose my images and where I intend to go in my work, I will be unable to formalize my photographs once I'm behind the camera. This process can take moments or days. Most of the time, my conceptual ideas fill up notebooks while my other photographic work requires only a few moments to focus, to research and to process what I will be shooting. I do believe that photography has elements of improvisation but, like musical improvisation, artistic photography requires a repertoire.
The next material I use involves choosing how I will manipulate light. Because photography's main 'pigment' (so to say) is light I cannot manipulate it like one would manipulate paint. Instead I depend on film, lenses, cameras, and developmental and printing processing to be my manipulator. Film and lenses especially either set restrictions or grant flexibility depending on which I choose. In these realms I am a huge fan of photo-extremes. I use primarily my wide angle lens, or I like to get very close to my subject matter. Film wise, I am polar as well. I will use film that either produces strong colors/hues or muted tones. I adore slide film for its color purity and, as Marni puts it, they are just like little photographic gems. I also enjoy using color negative film for the subtle yellows and magentas in addition to all the complex blues that pop. Digitally, I manipulate light mainly through filters.
Sometimes I do have control over subject matter. As an artist I try to incorporate some other methods of making art into my photographs. I have always been interested in building: I am technically savvy enough to experiment but I do not have enough patience to engineer. Thus I often find myself manipulating or crafting scenarios out of prefabricated objects. In my upcoming work I will be manipulating toy cars which I will then photograph. I am also interested in some degree of using found objects in my photography. I have already begun to unravel the strangeness and importance of my grandmother's family photographs and I hope to use these found photographs for another upcoming project involving family history and memory.
I have chosen to stay with photography for so long because I love the novelty of manipulating finite instances of reality and photography seems to have unlimited methods to manipulate it. I was drawn in by photography because I have never been one to step back and let life go by me. And it hooked me the first time I dipped paper in the developer and the image appeared out of thin air in the chemicals. I still get a rush by how more magnificent life can be in two dimensions.
Good statement about materials. Obviously in an actual artist's statement, you won't be able to make direct reference to Marni, because no one will know who she is, but that's a technical detail and this is just a free write. I'm actually not totally sure you're my group member, because I accidentally left my paper in Sage, but hopefully you are!
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