Unique

IÕm more and more convinced that my work is in a class by itself. 99% of the work I see is about things- the subject.
My work has always been about the print- about the new object that is created.
The subject is important in that it is the stimulus to push the button in the first place.
However, as someone said, Szarkowski or Borcoman or Minor White, - at the moment of exposure, a new object is created.

Ron Soloman at NFB used to say, ÒWho has seen the photograph?Ó
Very few ever see the photograph. There is something called a ÒglossÓ; it is a conviction of reality so convincing that we donÕt see the medium
conveying that illusion. Think of glossy paper. We donÕt see the surface, but go right into the image.
Many live in a gloss of life; live but donÕt see themselves living.

Now it seems to me that the surrealist images we create, (they represent real things, but are really other things),
are at their strongest, their most surreal, when they represent those real things and events most realistically.
The farther those images stray from accurate depictions, the weaker they are as photographs.
Not to deny people their right to have fun with photography. But IÕm feckinÕ serious!

Berenice said, ÒPhotography is wonderful, but we must not say so!Ó We mustnÕt say it because it blows our cover.

In my not so humble opinion, after more than six decades exploring it, photography blows my mind!

Magritte was onto it! (This is not a piece of cheese.)

I donÕt do photography for fun! IÕm doing it because ItÕs my life, and itÕs what
IÕm doing. ItÕs one of the ways I question my life.

IÕve seen work that IÕve liked, that has spoken to me, and have considered that work as possible avenues for me, but I canÕt do it!

I can only do the kind of work I do. ItÕs not a limitation. ItÕs because IÕm directed by some force to do the kind of work I do.
The only way I sense that force is in what it doesnÕt allow me to do. ThereÕs a feeling of satisfaction, or completeness when I make a ÒLionelÓ photograph.
And thatÕs a good thing.

Terry says there is a consistency of expression throughout my work. Yup!

If nobody values my work, IÕm in very good company, (Van Gogh, Michelangelo).
The art market is bullshit anyway. A buncha people trying to make themselves feel important by lording it over others who are not in their club!

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