Photographic perception and memory
The passion I have about photography is not necessarily about the photograph, but about what the photograph could represent.
I am ambivalent about the technique of photography as well as the process. Technique is important in the physical capture of an image and the effect a camera has on the perception of the photograph. But once the image has been captured the importance of the camera the method of capture and the materials used becomes insignificant, a bit like the wrapping on a chocolate bar, useful for a while but always discarded, the memory being the chocolate.
I have spend years in darkrooms, ages in front of a computer making my work, none of which is relevant once the photograph has been printed, but less so after. I love to look at an Ansell Adams and I admit have read the vast amount of technical information in his books. However when you look at his work, the importance for us now is limited, as time has gone by.
I have often browsed junk shops and antique shops and found old photographs from house clearances and spent long emotional periods looking a intimate family portraits and weddings, reliving the memories that those photographs still send years after the owners have died.
With my own family photographs, the most vivid memory I have, was seeing a Christmas photograph of my mother as a child sitting on the lap of my beloved grandfather by the Christmas tree. My grandfather, I loved for his kindness and acceptance of me a small boy, who was always greeted with a smile and kindliness. The shock was seeing him in a German military uniform and unable to understand the juxtaposition of a world war two majors uniform and my kindly watercolourist grandfather.
I am ambivalent about the technique of photography as well as the process. Technique is important in the physical capture of an image and the effect a camera has on the perception of the photograph. But once the image has been captured the importance of the camera the method of capture and the materials used becomes insignificant, a bit like the wrapping on a chocolate bar, useful for a while but always discarded, the memory being the chocolate.
I have spend years in darkrooms, ages in front of a computer making my work, none of which is relevant once the photograph has been printed, but less so after. I love to look at an Ansell Adams and I admit have read the vast amount of technical information in his books. However when you look at his work, the importance for us now is limited, as time has gone by.
I have often browsed junk shops and antique shops and found old photographs from house clearances and spent long emotional periods looking a intimate family portraits and weddings, reliving the memories that those photographs still send years after the owners have died.
With my own family photographs, the most vivid memory I have, was seeing a Christmas photograph of my mother as a child sitting on the lap of my beloved grandfather by the Christmas tree. My grandfather, I loved for his kindness and acceptance of me a small boy, who was always greeted with a smile and kindliness. The shock was seeing him in a German military uniform and unable to understand the juxtaposition of a world war two majors uniform and my kindly watercolourist grandfather.
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