transits 123, photograph
“We become who we are by virtue of the choices we make … about which parts belong to the story, and which parts can be left out.”
- Ted Orland, The View from the Studio Door
Orland describes a bit about how consciousness happens – five times a second or so, we take a snapshot of the most plausible reality we can from what our senses offer us. We have to gather these discrete snippets from the blizzard of perception coming at us at all times or we’d be overwhelmed.
Each time one of these electronic impulses causes us to sample reality, we “paint the foreground, mute the background”, we “separate the specific from the general”. We fit together the pieces we can and set aside the rest. We decide which parts belong to the story and which do not.
This process is duplicated when we take a photograph. We create the story by using various techniques to bring certain things to the forefront while simultaneously de-emphasizing others. We do this through composition and design, through selective focus, through dodging and burning, and myriad other strategies.
Making art is our way of recreating a personal world in much the same manner that we all create our everyday worlds. Here our choices are more conscious and controlled. It’s a way to dip into the ever rushing stream of reality and slow it down enough to enjoy and reflect upon it.
I like your photo style and your essays are worth pondering. Continue.
That you do slow down and create your own reality is evident in your work. Very admirable. This is another lovely image.
Mr. Orland is too overfaring, while your muse is down to Earth. It really sounds like he is talking about video rather than the static photographic image.
The photo this week deserves to be upheld as both still, and evocative. It is successful as art and I don’t think it needs to be justified. Complex rhetoric, I always felt, is just like criticism. The sensibility in/of the image is fascinating!
hi again
just wondering if wordpress allows followers? (i.e., like blogsport)
i so enjoyed my visit to your site the last time i was here, but that was in august . . . out of sight, out of mind . . . anyway,
found again somehow.
This is a stunning creation. Gallery ready. So beautiful.
I’m not familiar with blogsport but any rss reader (like Google Reader) will allow you to subscribe to my blog and get notified of new postings.