We Look At The World And See

The Only Other Things I Got From The Abstract Expressionists Is The Absolute Belief That This Canvas Is The Complete Total Area Of Struggle, This Is The Arena, This Is Where The Fight Is Taking Place, The Battle. Everybody Believes That, But You Have To Really Believe That And Work That Way.

As The Language Or Vocabulary Of Photography Has Been Extended, The Emphasis Of Meaning Has Shifted, Shifted From What The World Looks Like To What We Feel About The World And What We Want The World To Mean.

What Is The Subject Matter Of This Apparently Very Personal World? It Has Been Suggested That These Shapes And Images Are Underworld Characters, The Inhabitants Of The Vast Common Realm Of Memories That Have Gone Down Below The Level Of Conscious Control. It May Be They Are. The Degree Of Emotional Involvement And The Amount Of Free Association With The Material Being Photographed Would Point In That Direction.

For Some Reason Or Other There Was In Me The Desire To See The World Clean And Fresh And Alive, As Primitive Things Are Clean And Fresh And Alive. The So-called Documentary Picture Left Me Wanting Something.

We Look At The World And See What We Have Learned To Believe Is There. We Have Been Conditioned To Expect... But, As Photographers, We Must Learn To Relax Our Beliefs.