freelance paradigm

If a man approaches a work of art with any desire to exercise authority over it and the artist, he approaches it in such a spirit that he cannot receive any artistic impression from it at all. The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. The spectator is to be receptive. He is to be the violin on which the master is to play. And the more completely he can suppress his own silly views, his own foolish prejudices, his own absurd ideas of what Art should be, or should not be, the more likely he is to understand and appreciate the work of art in question. This is, of course, quite obvious in the case of the vulgar theatre-going public of English men and women. But it is equally true of what are called educated people. For an educated person’s ideas of Art are drawn naturally from what Art has been, whereas the new work of art is beautiful by being what Art has never been; and to measure it by the standard of the past is to measure it by a standard on the rejection of which its real perfection depends. A temperament capable of receiving, through an imaginative medium, and under imaginative conditions, new and beautiful impressions, is the only temperament that can appreciate a work of art.

Oscar Wilde in The Soul of a Man under Socialism

Actually I do not think that there are any wrong reasons for liking a statue or a picture. Someone may like a landscape painting because it reminds him of home, or a portrait because it reminds him of a friend. There is nothing wrong with that. All of us, when we see a painting, are bound to be reminded of a hundred-and-one things which influence our likes and dislikes. As long as these memories help us to enjoy what we see, we need not worry. It is only when some irrelevant memory makes us prejudiced, when we instinctively turn away from a magnificent picture of an alpine scene because we dislike climbing, that we should search our mind for the reason the aversion which spoils a pleasure we might otherwise have had. There are wrong reasons for disliking a work of art.
/../
There is no greater obstacle to the enjoyment of the great works of art than our unwillingness to discard habits and prejudices.
/../
It is infinitely better not to know anything about art than to have the kind of half-knowledge which makes for snobbishness. /../ One sometimes sees people walking trough the gallery, catalogue in hand. Every time they stop in front of a picture they eagerly search for its number. We can watch them thumbing trough their books, and as soon as they have found the title or the name they walk on. They might just as well have stayed at home, for they have hardly looked at the paining. They have only checked the catalogue. It is a kind of mental circuit which has nothing to do with enjoying the picture. /../ They may have heard that Rembrandt was famous for his chiaroscuro - which is the Italian term for light and shade - so they nod wisely when they see a Rembrandt, mumble 'wonderful chiaroscuro' and wander on to the next picture. /../ To talk cleverly about art is not very difficult, because the words critics use have been employed in so many different contexts that they have lost all precision. But to look at a picture with fresh eyes and to venture on a voyage of discovery into it is far more difficult but also a much more rewarding task. There is no telling what one might bring home from such a journey.

Ernst Gombrich, The Story of Art, Introduction

How about you? How many times have you surrendered to the picture or a photograph the way you surrender your soul at a concert of your favorite rock band. I can't figure why are we such snobs when it comes to pictorial arts (and sometimes classical music, artistic movies...)? I am trying do discipline myself to approach art with a fresh soul, clean of prejudice but most of all - with time. There is so much more to experience in a painting or a photograph if you just take time and let your eyes wonder around and collect little details. It really is an incredible quest, far better than just "thumbing trough" and mumbling adjectives, adverbs and nouns. Sometimes even an amateur drawing can be an amazing experience, because it was drawn with a whole heart (and of course, it can happen that a fashionable artist can leave you empty, but lets leave that aside) and really make your day. Just see it afresh and give it enough time!

And guess what; it works for people too!

Slowly but steadily I am reading John Berger's book Ways of Seeing. It is a remarkable piece of thinking which has to be consumed as slowly as possible. The third chapter in which Berger finds a strong parallel between realistic (oil) painting and materialism is especially intriguing:


What are these paintings?
Before they are anything else, they are themselves objects which can be bought and owned. Unique objects. A patron can not be surrounded by music or poems in the same way he can be surrounded by his pictures.
It is as though a collector lives in a house built of paintings. What is their advantage over walls of stone or wood? THEY SHOW HIM SIGHTS: SIGHTS OF WHAT HE MAY POSSESS. - John Berger

Before the renaissance painters were no more than anonymous (yet skilled) craftsmen, very much like carpenters or plumbers today. But when Giotto first painted his Lamentation of Christ, he introduced not just a new way of painting, but also a new way of seeing things. Painting was no longer symbolic, now it offered a window into another reality, a replica of physical world. What follows is an never-ending pursuit of perfection; how to make painting as realistic as possible, that is to say, how to make an illusion of reality as perfect as possible. Because: what is painting if not just drops of color on flat canvas or a wall. Whatever 'realistic' we might see in a painting is just a trick of the brain.

From here it is just another logical step; if we could paint things in a realistic manner, we could show things. THINGS THAT MONEY CAN BUY. In other words; we can show off. Patrons were commissioning paintings of their castles, belongings, wifes, horses, exotic animals, even more exotic food (it is how still life was born), and so on... Painters were trapped in a position which was well payed, but a bit boring... Suddenly they were a slave of realism with little or no space for more sublime symbolic thought. Only rare exceptions (Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Michelangelo...) were able to transcend this claws and create something that went into history. Myriads of others didn't. During the late baroque period techniques of realistic painting reached perfection.

Luckily for painters photography was invented just in time! Suddenly painters were free! They could finally venture back into symbolism where they belonged (imagine a poet trapped in a job of a news reporter). Now it was the photographer's job to recreate physical reality onto 2-dimensional plane.

I believe photographers are trapped in the same way painters were during the famous "realistic" periods (14th to 18th century). Better yet, photographers are today in the same position as painters during the late baroque. The techniques of reproduction are perfected to the level at which we are being bored by it. Wedding, portrait, still life, commercial and other types of photography are mere reproduction of physical reality (and how funny, most of them are dedicated to the 'things that money can buy'). Even photojournalism rarely goes beyond that. This is why photojournalists have their mouths full of 'stories' and 'humanitarianism' - they need a deeper reason to justify their menial craft.

The way in which I am pulled more and more by each passing day is symbolism. I am tired of being a slave to physical reality, I want to produce some of my own. I am not happy just by reporting anymore, I want to write my own (fictional?) stories or even poems instead. This is the main motive behind my new project: 52.

Last year it was all about capturing daily impressions with my mobile camera. This year I am doing something more profound, something more planned and contemplated. I am doing a project of one photo per week. I am trying to venture into the world of symbols, as deep as I could go. I want to explore the world of dreams, fears, emotions... To me the whole thing is very close to filming movies; I have to write a story, organize the filming (find locations, actors...) and at the end shoot the whole thing. It is very challenging and I hope to make it trough. So far I am doing it on Hasselblad camera (I really want that quality). You can follow me on flickr.

Doris is a good friend of mine. Together with her brother we had a lot of fun in studio today. Many thanks to both for some great time!

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