Lines of Thought: Relation, Connection, and Slow Photography.
Thinking about writing this introduction has released many small thoughts into the air, and while attending to their darting and circling, swooping and soaring flight, their lines have become entwined.
Thoughts reflecting on the practice of an art-based photography; current trends and debates in photography, but also thoughts left lying too long, pushed to one side or even forgotten. From small everyday thoughts; of family, work, bills, shopping, food,travel etc, to thoughts on the Grand themes of Life; History, Art, Science, Education, Society, Death. All are connected. All are related.
Junichiro Tanizaki in his book ‘In Praise of Shadows’ explores the preference for a, “…pensive lustre to a shallow brilliance 2 in the contemplation and appreciation of materials and objects in Japanese aesthetics. The contrast he describes in his essay is one between thoughtful depth and superficial shallowness. I find this contrast resonates more and more throughout my own thoughts, informs my sensibilities, and influences my choices.
Social relations have been replaced by social dysfunctions. Globalisation has simply put a new spin on an old World. The surface of the world is brighter, faster, and shinier (for some). Connections (past present future) have been severed. Relations (existence) have been devalued and corrupted.
In his book This is Civilisation’, the Art Critic Matthew Collings describes the similarities between Contemporary Art and our (post) Modern society,
“The same themes: celebrity, money, scandal and personality now apply to both... instead of seriousness our gallery bosses give us pretentiousness, and instead of playfulness we get triviality (2) Sadly, I believe a lot of contemporary photography is made for a tourist mentality, akin to advertising, or the equivalent of muzak. Big, shiny, one-dimensional, bite-size, for people in a hurry; to be consumed quickly as we pass by, to be ticked off. Seen it, done it, bought the souvenir.
Fortunately, I am still passionate about art as a creative, empowering process. Still optimistic. Recently I have heard practitioners, critics and curators discussing the return of the “aura”, the return of beauty, the return of the pleasure in looking. For some of us, these concerns have never gone away. The circle turns, albeit slowly. A slow revolution.
“Experience and evaluation are more important than understanding, and that deeper engagement with a picture only comes after the initial pleasure of looking at it.” (4) “Revelling in the auratic propensity of monochrome photographic thinking is perhaps not an unreconstructed Modernists impulse any longer, but rather a true reaction to the axis shift in the way we look at photography in light of digital.” (5)
“In a world that is growing ever bigger, faster and harder to grasp, there needs to be a moment of stasis.” (6)
A moment of stillness.
There has been growing disillusionment i n recent times with the fast, frantic, shallow lifestyle of global capitalism. In 1989, in Rome a group of people took a stance against Fast Food and the global food industry. A new philosophy spread slowly across Europe, Slow Food. (7) Now there is Slow Travel, Slow Cities, Slow Schools, Slow Books and Slow Living.
Over the last few years my mind has been playing with the concept of Slow Photography. Influenced by the theories of the French Historian Fernand Braudel, the photographers Hiroshi Sugimoto and Craigie Horsfield both refer to “slow time” and “slow history” in relation to their work.
“Alluding to the nearly imperceptible evolutions in everyday life, slow history and slow time lie beneath the surface of culture and contrast with the high-paced changes dominating the surface, especially in a capitalist society.” (8)
Alongside this slow approach and slow process, there is also a need for slow looking. Carol Armstrong discusses the need for an ‘Aesthetic Sphere’ (9) , a space and time for contemplation. This aesthetic sphere is not a space to go and hide in, totally the opposite, given the separation, distraction, shallow-ness, speed and demands of society, we need this space to become connected, to become related.
Art isn’t just another buzz that entertains us and distracts us from the gruelling monotony of life. It is life. It is our imaginative proposal of what life can be (10) Photography is often undervalued. From around 1890 when Kodak insisted ‘You push the button, we do the rest’ to the phenomena of Facebook and Myspace, millions of photographs are in circulation. Daily we are bombarded, swamped with photographic images. Yes, anyone can take a photograph, but to be a photographer is to be something else.
“Time to see, to look with intensity, to become familiar with your subject. Time to learn the possibilities of process, to learn how process and subject become one in the expression of feeling, of concept. Time to respond to the silence, to the stillness of the image” (11)
Photography at the University of Derby is part of a philosophy; a process of exploration, a process of questioning, a process of engagement, a process of picture-making. All the students taking part in this exhibition are Photographers, and it is because of these people I am optimistic.
Colin Wilson 2008
Notes
Title. This text was written as Program Leader for the 2008 Photography Degree Show catalogue.
2. In Praise of Shadows. Junichiro Tanizaki, written 1933, translated in 1977,
published by Vintage in 2001. Page 20.
3. This is Civilisation. Matthew Collings, 2007. 2 1 Publishing Ltd 2008. Page 9.
4. Quoted by Craig Burnett in his essay to accompany Jeff Wall's exhibition; Black &
White Photographs 1996 - 2007. White Cube 2007.
5. Charlotte Cotton. The New Color: The Return of Black-and-White. www.tipofthetongue.org
6. Matthias Hoch. Quoted in a presentation on his work to accompany a Master
Class in large format colour analogue photography held at the University of Derby.
2008.
8. David Ebony. Essay "Art a s Relation. Craigie Horsfield Relation. Ed' Catherine de
Zegher, published by; Jeu de Paume, Paris, Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian,
Lisboa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. 2006. Page 198.
9. Carol Armstrong. In conversation with Craigie Horsfield. Ibid. Page 322
10. This is Civilisation. Matthew Collings. 2007. 21 Publishing Ltd 2008. Page 22.
11. John Blakemore. Thoughts on the creative process. Conversation. 2008.
12. Marcel Proust.
