I was asked recently, “where do you see your work going? Where do you want to move your photography?” This is an interesting question. For starters, I’m not really sure, I’m never sure how to answer such a broad open-ended question like this. There are a lot of ways it can go and a lot of things that pull me in. I’m easily fascinated, I guess you could say. But, the real issue is that I don’t have a giant game plan. I don’t have something akin to a scorecard that I keep which tells me, “Yup. I shot a bluebonnet today. Okay. Now, onto the next big thing.” I don’t work with a plan like that. I’ve always preferred to be the type of shooter who lets my work sort of be my guide and I follow along as a willing participant, almost a passenger on this wild ride. That’s how I like to think of myself anyway. Certainly, I’m not afraid to branch off in one direction and see where it leads me.
In the moment though, when pressed, I came up with this answer. “I’m devolving into an abstract version of myself.” While, on some level, this really doesn’t make much sense, I’d have to admit that it’s probably the closest to the truth I could come up with, especially when put on the spot like that. I really am devolving into an abstract version of myself.
When I started out as an artist, earlier in my career, my work was more concrete. I was taken in by the tyranny of the real. It was all I did. Frankly, I would not change a thing about that work either, as photography possibly at it’s best combines the real and the abstract. It’s what the medium is good at so why not celebrate it, right?
Lately though it seems like I’m drawn more and more into the abstract. I just don’t want anything real anymore. I’m drawn to the expressive nature of the abstract, the mystery, the intrigue. I have no use for the real. You could go into a search engine, type in a name, say “mountain” and come up with a really great shot of a mountain. Why would I want to be bound by that? Why can’t I just make a mountain the way I want to make it, the way I want to see it? For all you know, this image here could be a purple mountain, right? Lately anyway, it seems like I have a strong preference for the unbound. It’s what I’ve been seeing and it’s what I want to do. Guess we’ll see where this one leads me, right? Here’s hoping it’s someplace good!
Until next time…
PS This one taken with the Canon 5DS. No, it’s not a mountain, just a purple thing. Up close and personal, as I like it.
