“If a line between art and craft does exist, the poet himself shouldn’t draw it; he should focus only on making the poem happen.”
James Merrill
Hand versus Machine
I came of age as an artist at a time when imaging technology was evolving in leaps and bounds. Yet, culturally, photographers were still expected to be “truthful”, to never mislead the viewer with images that weren’t at their inception exactly as seen through the viewfinder. Anything beyond a little color correction and one risked the dreaded “photoshopped!” insult. I never suffered the slight since inventing new realities was a requirement at my day job, not as a photographer but as a commercial artist working in the entertainment business. The demand for technical prowess was such that half of my co-workers at my first job in Hollywood came from the military. As is often the case, the defense industry is frequently at the inception of inventions that eventually find purpose in civilian applications. Ray tracing, a technique for modeling light transport for use in a variety of rendering algorithms for generating digital images was imagined as early as the 16th century. It is Albrecht Dürer, that greatest figure of the Northern Renaissance who first described multiple techniques for projecting 3D scenes onto an image plane. It’s first practical application was first demonstrated in 1971 in a short animation that depicted a helicopter being tracked and eventually destroyed by a ground level gun.
The images I make demand techniques and technologies whose intended applications were never conceived with an artist in mind. The down-to-the-micron focus rail I own was devised for biology whereas the software I use to process the stacks found its first application in astronomy. Artists, makers, and scientists alike have always had to look outside of their area of expertise to find tools to express and demonstrate novel ideas. Such is the creative process, a relentless demand for improvement to realize one’s full potential. An understanding of the world around us and a desire for knowledge are the two cognitive prerequisites one needs in order to progress. Technique reduced to a means to an end, as a not enjoyable necessity, is drudgery. But an almost childlike innocent disposition toward technique promises a continued freshness of appreciation of life’s basic goods. A sunset or a flower to be experienced differently each time but with the same excitement as it was at first.
Beauty, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder. I question this. I do believe that beauty as the embodiment of excellence transcends an individual’s personal tastes or beliefs. It is not an opinion but a sensory response to a shared experience. Instead, it is perfection that needs defining. Beauty triggers intense feelings of ecstasy, harmony and meaning. Since nobody is denying its existence nor its appeal, one has to wonder if the debate isn’t really about authority as to whom decides and declares what and who is beautiful, or not. In which case, the saying is correct. Accepting beauty as a fact of life; despite the unfairness as to who has it; can be liberating, even therapeutic: that despite its thorns, a rose will reveal shared values and commonality amongst disparate people.
The kind of plant photography I practice is at the confluence of the scientific image, traditional botanical illustration and contemporary representation. Apart from a few cultural exceptions, plants are not perceived as having agency nor do their engender strong political feelings. For most people, they are ubiquitous passive bystanders with a somewhat pleasant predisposition. This perceived innate neutrality is fertile ground to test the limits of representation without worrying about strong positive or adverse feelings due to an inherent cultural baggage of the subject matter. They are malleable and accommodating. Plants allow the artist to observe an audience ascribe; and project onto; the most fanciful of human traits.
As a photographer, I am obsessed as to where the boundaries of taste and propriety lie. When does a condiment suddenly shift from sweet to bitter? Why is Maleficent’s physicality a representation of female cruelty whereas Snow White is the embodiment of purity and kindness? When is something innate rather than cultural? When does a representation become or stop being a fallacy of emotion? Does the act of bringing pleasure and happiness make an argument true? For anyone who has met me in person there is no doubt as to my gender or my ability to split wood. Yet as an experiment, I enjoy the dissonance between my physical appearance and my practice. Not only does “I take pictures of flowers” sound weird, it is weird. I use my thirty plus years in post production to lead viewers down a path of self validation as to what they consider true and virtuous.
Art critic John Berger posits that a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject but actually a trace of it. Conversely, one could argue that ever since the invention of photography, our reality and our understanding of what is will most likely have the imprint, the trace, of an artist.