5.25.2007

How Far We've Come

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii,
A Chapel on the Site Where the Old City of Belozersk Stood 1909

I just got a link about the Library of Congress using color plates developed by a Russian Photographer before the First World War to recreate images of the Russian Empire in color. The photographs are quite amazing. Personally, this image takes the cake. Without the Architectural signature the countryside and the small chapel could easily be in Rural Alabama.

This makes me consider the appropriation of style from our photographic predecessors. I will proudly say that I am directly influenced by color nuances of William Eggleston and the directness of William Christenberry. These and many others have a direct bearing on my process (see the list to the right), but this image has all the same qualities and I dare say that neither I nor my influences have ever seen it.

This makes me consider the idea that there may be some inherent way of seeing and framing that every photographer (or any artist for that matter) possesses. Could there be a quality within our own brains that make us decide how frames should be filled and with what. Was I born a Minimal thinker or did I just become a Topographical personality.

Despite how we get here, we must agree to the beauty that surrounds us and a need to share it with our chosen art.

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