Celebrating performance and visual arts
Photography :
Burdette Parks
Storytelling :
Fran Yardley
Note:
All contents on this site are Copyright protected.
All contents on this site are Copyright protected.
© 2009 Burdette Parks, RoundLake Studios. All rights reserved.
www.roundlakestudios.com
For site issues, E-
Site Design by RoundLake Studios using WebPlus X4 by Serif.
Dimensions
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
Photographs are almost exclusively exhibited and seen in 2-D – as two dimensional objects. That is, they exist on two planes–having length and width.
Last year for the Guild's winter group show with the theme “The Artist Within,” I did a piece with that title. It got me thinking about presenting photos in dimensions other than the traditional, frozen two-dimensional object matted and framed behind glass.
As I contemplated various possibilities, I came to appreciate that the attribute of “dimension” is expandable in other significant ways besides space. Adding spatial dimension is, of course, the most obvious direction to go in an attempt to explore new dimensions, but it is only one of many and while it can be more energized than two-dimensional display it has it's own limitations.
During the exploration process, I kept getting seduced by the fourth dimension―the dimension of Time.
At its very basic level, a camera is a tool. It is a tool designed, or at least that has evolved, to be an instrument for capturing and recording visual stimuli. In so doing, the camera defines an artificial frame around an arbitrary subject for a finite period of time. Employing this tool, the photographer is responsible for identifying, refining and ordering the infinite variations for all three of these parameters. In the process, of course, a three-dimensional reality is squashed into a two-dimensional interpretation.
The photographer picks the subject, decides how it will be framed and determines how much time will be frozen to create the desired image. In using the camera tool, we are accustomed, through long practice and tradition, to nearly unlimited variation and choice in the selection of two of the three major parameters―subject and framing. Almost without exception, one of the main goals in clicking the camera's shutter is to record a scene or a moment as a recognizable rendition of what is seen in the viewfinder. In that case, the primary function of the Time parameter is to stop time―to freeze the moment.
But what happens if the Time parameter is treated as variably as the parameters of subject and format? What if the camera is allowed to move in time rather than being fixed in one place? What if the goal was not to record, but to create? Such questions certainly suggest new dimensions.
In this era of digital photography, a new tool has been added to the photographer’s arsenal. The Digital Darkroom exponentially expands the ways an image can be interpreted and manipulated once it is captured. There are traditionalists who object strongly to anything that hints of digital “post-processing” and without question it can be misused and abused like any tool. But in the final analysis, it is just another tool―another tool to enhance and expand the creative process.
The question of whether Art's only function is to mirror nature was answered long ago. The camera and the digital darkroom need not be limited to only capturing and preserving a “photographic” record of our world. They can be exciting tools for interpreting and exploring artistic visions of that world and of worlds beyond. Worlds which may have previously existed only for the Artist Within.
This is definitely work in progress. I feel like I'm just dipping my toe into a new and fascinating pool of unknown breadth and depth―and who knows what other dimensions? No telling where it may lead. Stay tuned.
