The Frame – © John Neel
I wrote this as a response to a reader on a post I had written a few years back. I thought that other readers might find it interesting.
If you ever get the chance to go to a gallery such as the George Eastman House, and actually see first hand their great images created with film or digital, you will see a tremendous variety of image styles. For me, it is especially amazing to see older images produced with ancient processes. I find that besides the subject, which is most important in any image, it is the huge variation in details, cameras, processes and craftsmanship that gave the images their presence. It is that presence that becomes the larger experience of the work.
These days, most people accept images of all kinds as they see them on a computer screen. While this might be one way to see what is out in the real world, it is not the true experience of any image. Especially the works of the best photographers and artists.
I compare it to seeing a painting or a piece of sculpture in a book rather than experiencing it as it really exists. I remember going to the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and seeing the works of Frida Kahlo. I had only seen the work previously in print. What I never saw in the books were the brush strokes, the details, the real color of her work and the scale. But one of the things that really surprised me with some of the works, was that she had painted onto the actual frame. This was amazing to me. The painting did not stop at the frame. Her world was larger than that. The frame and the image were the same. I was so inspired; I began to make photographs using a similar concept. Not only was I inspired; the experience transformed my thinking about this artist and gave me a whole new understanding of her work.
I try to have the same kind of communion with all of the art I confront.
The same thing happens with photography. When you experience the work of a great artist the experience is magnified many times. The subtleties, details, dimensions, the tones and the things that draw you into the experience of viewing actual images are what most people are missing. For me, to really see and understand an image, one needs to look at it up close and first hand, the way it was intended to be seen.
Even digital images are better when viewed at scale with the real detail, the real surface and real colors. It is a much more satisfying experience.
Most of my first experiences with images were from books and magazines. Most of my experience now is on the computer. But every chance I get, I go to a gallery to look at what I could not see in the page of a book or the screen of my computer.
When I can look at an image first hand, I am always surprised to see that what appeared as a 1″x2″ image in the book or on screen is actually 30X60 inches or larger or maybe it is actually 1″x2″. Either way, the experience is totally different. Chuck Close is a good example of a painter who uses photographs to create his eight to ten foot high paintings of faces. Most books that show his work can’t begin to create the first hand experience of one of his paintings due to the limitations of printed page. On a computer screen at 72 dpi it is even less effective.
Of all the places I go, it is the gallery setting that I find most influential and inspiring. For me it is where you can really experience the image in the moment and almost feel the presence of the creator. The computer experience is not the same. Not by a long shot.
The computer tends to bring everything down to the same level. A painting by Monet, a photograph by Atget or Adams, ads for a camera, a car or an iPod all get the same treatment. There is no real scale, no real texture, little fidelity and no authenticity. The experience becomes homogenized, mundane, uninspiring and as a result short-lived and lifeless.
At the very least, the computer can show us the things that we should try to see if we get a chance to view the real thing.
If you get an opportunity to go to a gallery, give yourself a chance to really look at the work. It might pay to spend some time on the computer researching the artists that are in the gallery so that you can have a good idea of what you will see. Go with an open mind. Don’t shrug off things that do not meet your criteria of what you think something is supposed to look like. Expect the things you see to be different and give the images you see enough time for the experience to happen.
Images are a form of communication. Look at the work in the order it was hung or placed in the space. Try to see a body of work as if you were turning pages in a book. Read the labels next to the images. Find out when it was done and what medium was used. Ask questions to yourself such as what is the artist trying to show. What is the image about? What is in the image? What is in the background? Ask the Who, What, Why and When questions.
Walk away with a new understanding. Become inspired. Use what you learn to create. That is what artists do.
Pssst I should mention, the experience usually only happens with great images and only if you are willing to spend the time to see them and communicate with them. It is always a two-way street.
The images we see on our computers should inspire us to go and view the actual works as often as possible.
To experience the good stuff, go to the good galleries, the great galleries and the great museums.
Here are a couple of videos that might explain scale and other properties involved in the experience of artistic works. Photography produces similar kinds of experience as paintings and the other arts.
Videos – YouTube – Chuck Close – Frida Kahlo
Please have a look at some of my other posts here.
NOTICE of Copyright: THIS POSTING AS WELL AS ALL PHOTOGRAPHS, GALLERY IMAGES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS ARE COPYRIGHT © JOHN NEEL AND ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE WRITER, THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR lensgarden.com. THE IDEAS EXPRESSED ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE AUTHOR.
