PORTFOLIOS
People, Light and the Illusion of Photography
Why I Photograph
As a student, I heard Garry Winogrand respond to the question of why he takes pictures with his now famous quote, “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs.” Unfortunately, no one (including me) asked him the critical follow up question, "Why do you want to see what the world looks like in photographs?" I have come to understand that the answer to the second question, for me (and perhaps Winogrand as well), concerns trying to understand the unique complexities and contradictions that inform the way a photograph transforms the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional image.
All photographs appear to present a literal, optical rendering of a situation, although some seem to have significance greater than the content they capture; but without captions they can be ambiguous, mysterious, serendipitous and surreal—a complex tableau with a deeper meaning that may, or may not, be specific to the subject matter itself. These are the kinds of photographs I’m looking for.
Even for masters of “street photography,” the success rate for making quality images can be infinitesimally small. Robert Frank’s seminal book, The Americans, contained 83 photographs culled from 28,000 negatives (0.003%). When Garry Winogrand died at age 54, he had exposed over 20,000 rolls of film (720,000 images).
With these obstacles in mind, I endeavor to keep my own artistic practice simple: When I go out to photograph I simply try to stay in the moment, let my instincts take over, and spontaneously react to the stream of everyday occurrences that present themselves.. The degree of dificulty is high, and it takes many attempts to make a photograph of interest, one in which everything comes together in a brief moment forming an image that transcends, but still accurately describes a situation. The resutling photograph is a fractal of reality with its own meaning and significance, an illusion that is profoundly tied to, but at the same time divorced from the original occurrence. Nicholas Blair
(Image: San Francisco, 1977)