MY PHILOSOPHY
I love asking people for their definition of art. Every response I’ve gotten is different; Art is creation devoid of purpose, art is a reflection of a mind, art is anything thought-provoking or emotive, art is the random creation of something merely aesthetically pleasing, etc. Respectfully, all incomplete takes. Art is intangible. Art is the amalgam of intuition free of logic, technical prowess achieved through unmatched dedication, and soul. An Artist is fueled by emotion, inspired by humanity, and enabled by obsession, mastering their craft through dedication. Creating Art is a form of meditation, an unadulterated expression, a validation of what it means to exist. My father taught me this. The music he creates is only accessible to him through near religious devotion, thousands of hours spent perfecting his craft, and a deep connection to his innate creative source. The result is inspiring. Art is much more than the driving force of societal evolution. Art is a vessel of empathy and truth. An Artist is superhuman. This is my superpower.
This belief is why I strongly invalidate AI “art”. Not only is it devoid of talent (intrinsic or learned), effort, finesse, (real) intelligence, intention, aspiration, or purpose, but of soul. It is blasphemy to designate art as anything less or other than human. As AI “art” becomes mainstream, this world, already divided by technology, will crave the humanity that true Art, made by humans, with soul, will bring.
The “separate the art from the artist" debate is misguided. The conversation questions whether it matters more who is talking or solely what is said, and whether a new perspective/the fresh train of thought it induces is more powerful than a viewer-derived interpretation/its subsequent self reflection. I believe that Art is arguably the most effective tool for opening a closed mind, but it’s also a powerful tool in meditative introspection. The two aren’t mutually exclusive; in fact, they are dependent on each other. Art can be both propaganda and a Rorschach test, as one. When someone observes a composition, they simultaneously process an outside point of view and internalize its meaning. It is not either the artist's perspective and expression or the viewer-derived interpretation but the marriage of the two that deems Art the most raw form of human interaction, beyond anything words could achieve. This is why separating art from the artist is both impossible to do, and inescapably happens automatically. Imperatively, both must happen simultaneously.
Photography is the most widespread art form, taking a preeminent place in our lives and culture, yet it is the least understood. In this consumerist culture where the populace is constantly fed thousands of photographs a day, nobody questions what’s going on behind the scenes. Truth is, a frame lies. A frame is a perceptual border, a window of delusion that leads you to ignore reality beyond it, even forget it exists, and human nature rules that we automatically acquiesce. A photographer must question every pixel within their frame. Every minuscule form and shadow is placed with intention. You see what I want you to, and nothing more. When an Artist masters this mindset, this method of composition, they shape reality, and can impart exactly what they intend to on the viewer. Art is communication beyond words.
A photograph might be intangible, perceptible with only one sense, yet every photographer relies on the physicality of light. Especially with analog processes, it’s impossible to ignore that the act of creation is made possible by and germinates from the laws of physics. Entropy, the fundamental organizing principle of the universe and axiom of time’s direction, is evident in the geometry of… everything. Entropy was once thought to be the direction of chaos, but it’s actually toroidal in structure. Seashells, flower petal sequences, galaxies, and hurricanes all form Fibonacci Spirals. DNA twists in a double helix rather than stretching in a straight chain. Water and air naturally follow paths of rotation. There IS mathematical law and a natural physical structure to the universe. Logically, the paths of light and sound through spacetime adhere to the same laws of entropy. Light and sound are both waves of different frequencies and speeds, but share the physics of vibration. Matter also maintains frequency, ascribed by its mass and density, hence glass shattering when confronted with a talented soprano. Scale doesn’t matter; the Earth itself resonates at a C sharp 33 octaves below middle C on a piano, a frequency that would have to accelerate by more than 68 billion times to be audible to the human ear. I believe that the relationship between matter and frequency is more than correlation; not a relationship, but the same. That the universe is one massive vibration and reverberation taking form to us either physically, audibly, or visibly, according to frequency. A Big Bang is a sound, after all.
Music is a way of playing with the actual fabric of the universe, taking the thing that brings us into existence, and making it beautiful, giving back to the soul of the universe. Manipulating light, through my camera lens and in the darkroom, is my way of using the fabric of reality to create something with soul, with my soul.
My Art is my contribution.