The most disconcerting aspect of photography according to Da Beat is the fact that most people do not preconceive their images. Most people merely point and shoot, in which case you really end up with no more than a snapshot, literally. Sometimes people set up a shot with a bit more preparation, a long exposure landscape shot for example, but they still end up with a snapshot. Here’s why…
What they really do is point the camera at a beautiful scene, generally during a time that the light works along favourably, at sunset for example, and trip the shutter for several seconds or minutes, depending on need. The end result is of course exactly as intended: merely a direct representation of a beautiful scene. Perhaps it supersedes a snapshot, and goes into postcard territory, but it certainly doesn’t elevate into art other than being artful craftsmanship possibly combined with a good eye.
It’s slightly different for painting. In painting one can obviously try to ignore any inhibitions of perception and conception and splatter paint all over a canvas in an attempt to represent something from deep inside. How successful this is as a means of communication remains up for debate, but in essence, both philosophically and artistically, the process is theoretically valid.
Not so for photography. You can’t just point the camera anywhere and click as a means of representing how you feel inside. The process of photography requires at least some visual feedback loop before the actual capture. This feedback loop however, can most certainly be based on pure intuition or subconscious judgement.
Da Beat however believes vehemently that intuition is subconscious logic, so he challenges himself to always try to explicate that hidden logic. This or that represents a certain feel and therefore yada yada… It’s a challenge though because mostly the logic remains hidden. He’s learned however that you can always file those images under the general term Absurdism. A kind of one-size-fits-all dustbin category to excuse one’s undetermined snapshots that are all wrong but inexplicably feel right.
32BT 