re-visions

It used to be that once you’d taken a photo you’d be stuck with whatever returned from the developer -- unless you were he, in which case you did have post photograph control over exposure and framing. With the advent of computers and software for amateurs everyone is a developer and processing is expected and relatively painless (once you’ve learned the manipulations and their sequence). What’s possible now is the selection and enhancement of exposure, framing, color and contrast. Also cleaning, saturation, layers, patterns, extraction, masks, painting, as well as all these with an "un-" in front of the word. Fiddling is the order of the day.

But we still have that place and time and their participants. There is the field in western Turkey where mostly women are picking a crop and stuffing it in sacks. And in the background there isn’t an ancient Greek temple where there should be one. Right? Ah, you say, if there should be there would be. Yes, I agree. And so there is one! Looking for all the world like it belongs there.

In "re-visions" I've taken photographs from places I've traveled to, and which you may have seen something of in "photoportals", and I've created idealized versions of them. In each "re-visions" picture I've included elements selected from different photographs -- sometimes from just two photographs and sometimes from many more. By "idealized" I don't mean fantastical: these are clearly not Dali dreamscapes. The "re-visions" pictures are not intended to shock but they're not innocuous. The combination of elements creates a scene not unlike the original (whatever that may have been is no longer relevant, however) but which turns the original idea on edge. The combination is meant to surprise or to challenge expectations or to elicit a feeling of satisfaction or to confound or even to disturb or exasperate. Or to evoke thought or awe or wonder.

Because so many of the pictures look like there's a place somewhere in the world where I could have photographed them you may even forget that these are art and not photographs. Nevertheless, they are creations. Also -- and I don’t know if it needs to be mentioned -- the elements have not been chosen at random. In every case (well, almost every) I chose an element that I felt belonged there. If the elements came from dramatically different cultures and seemed to be disparate that can point out that even seemingly disparate elements can be natural together.

Each time I’ve worked on the pictures or on the preparation of the web site I’ve had to force myself to pay attention to what I’m working on and not to get lost in the picture. That is, in itself, of course, a good discipline. When I do look at them, and have the pleasure of a new experience (and every time I look at any one of them I’m seeing a scene I’ve never seen before), it’s like I’m being presented with an unanswerable question. Maybe it’s because I know that each element exists somewhere but the whole thing exists nowhere except right in front of me: it’s impossible and it’s real. Or maybe it’s because the unanswerable question has a value. And that would be? Oh, you know it!