Newsletter Issue #001
Going back and forth on a project, letting your brain melt in the process and finding it's many possibilities
If we could divide the people who work with images into two groups, one would be the ones that understands that photography has an obligation of documenting all the concrete struggles that humankind faces, and therefore can be seen as the representation of reality, and the other would be the ones that question the nature of photography and the pure representation itself and understands that photography can be dubious and has the ability to lead us in many distinct directions.
I belong to the second group. It took me some time to understand that, but it's very clear to me now. And I'm not here to argue that one group is right and the other is not because that would probably be pointless. I'm here to take this information into account within my own work.
Following up my previous newsletter on this new project that I started (still no name, btw) I came across some perceptions, one of them being the relationships and associations between words and images.
I find that is extremely complicated to someone who's work is entirely in the realm of images (or photography to the ones who are a bit more precious towards the definitions) to describe the work with words. I see that we often find ourselves trying to actually give some meaning to them, rather than to talk about what it is that we're photographing. The task should be to not justify the work with words, or to not let the photographs to illustrate the words (unless it's a communication platform, like a newspaper. In those cases that is exactly what the combination of those two forms should be doing).
Susan Sontag wrote about this in her essay Against Interpretation. I highly recommend the reading if you haven't already, especially if you struggle with artist writing like I do.
I see that we often find ourselves trying to actually give some meaning to them, rather than to talk about what it is that we're photographing. The task should be to not justify the work with words, or to not let the photographs to illustrate the words
But back to the words thing. I tried adding a few wordplays into my new zine, in the form of a cover, because in my head it would lead the viewer to the opposite direction. But what I did not anticipated was that the photographs that I selected, with their sequence in the pages, corrugated to the exact interpretation that I was trying to avoid. You know, the one with the fictitious murder that was a bit funny and all?
So that led me back to thinking about that bloody murder (see what I did here?). Should I consider that narrative? Should I write about it, like a script of some sort, and incorporate it in the work? It was clear that It wasn't about that because it was not going to work that way, but now it seems that it *could* work, because maybe I wasn't paying attention enough.
My brain started spinning with all that (un)definition thing. So I started to research a few things that would go from concepts such as reality, interpretation, reality tunnel, photography itself, photobooks, Japanese photobooks... and all of that helped me understand - a bit - the possibilities of this body of work.
And now I find myself spreading the photographs that I had selected before like roots and looking through my catalog - again - to find some more. So instead of having one work to do, now I have two (and honestly, knowing me, I'll probably find three or four more).
So now we're back at square one and apparently there's going to be a murder at some point. But there's also going to be something in the praise of shadows. Oh well. We'll see how it'll go.
I'll see you in the next one.
Cheers,
Marina.
How do you find this newsletters so far? I know there's only three at the moment, but do you like reading about my creative process related to this project? Do you have any suggestions? What else would you like to see here on Amber Room? Drop me a comment below. Don’t be shy. I’ll be happy reading you ideas. :)
P.s.: We have a logo and an e-mail header now! Did you notice? What do you think about the colours? I think it looks quite nice. Given the fact that I’m not a designer, I’m quite proud of myself on this one. Let’s see how long it lasts. lol :)