Last night’s talk with my ‘guardo camino’ (road guard) Abe was fascinating.
The mystery of the allurement of photography.
Is photography subjective?
I think it is only subjective from the viewer’s point of view.
The photographer sees a moment and tries to capture it.
It is then in the viewer’s hand to unlock the mystery.
“A prophet will not be accepted in his home town”, the Bible says.
Most of the prophets were misunderstood.
They had a burden to carry-to tell or show the people a different way of seeing things.
To reveal things the way they really were.
It can be like this for artists.
Something weighing on the heart.
Something that must be explored,
revealed,
presented,
and most of the time,
misunderstood.
This is the folly of the artist.
Most people will not understand your work-
-unless they are willing to step out of their comfort zone.
This can be a problem.
We like comfort.
I guess the question that remains then is this:
Does the viewer want to unlock the mystery?
This is part of the reason people respond differently to different photos.
The psychology behind photography is a mystery in itself.
Pictures can tell us things about the world around us,
the people we love and the mystery locked inside our hearts.
Interesting, mysterious abstract photos can be hard to unravel,
but at its very essence,
they can reveal who we are and how we respond to our emotions.
Whether it be pictures,
paintings or sculptures,
art can be subjective to the viewer.
But it is this challenge that keeps us (the artist) attracted to creating or seeking that moment that confronts,
inspires and reveals emotion in the viewer.
