i could almost imagine i was standing on top of a different planet instead of standing in the midst of wyoming.
“The work of Katja Mater (b. 1979) originates from a meta perspective, dealing with the possibilities and impossibilities of Photography. Rather than documenting frozen moments in time, she turns the medium in on itself, aiming to show its intangible character. She makes visible the areas in which
the technique does not behave like human perception, to offer a better view on photography as a creating rather than a documenting medium.”
-Katja Majer (http://www.katjamater.nl/)
Katja speaks my language. I have the feeling she’s going to be a major inspiration while I try to figure out what to make for my senior show next year.
“Rather, [photographs] owe their existence to a loose cooperation (quasi-magical, quasi-accidental) between photographer and subject—mediated by an ever simpler and more automated machine, which is tireless, and which even when capricious can produce a result that is interesting and never entirely wrong.”
-Susan Sontag, “On Photography”
this was taken in yellowstone last week. to me, it looks more like a dreamy moonscape than a national forest. i’m still trying to wrap my head around glaciers, mud pots, and thermal pools. i think these would also make an excellent setting for ryan mcginley photographs.
i’m leaving for jackson hole, wyoming bright and early tomorrow morning. prepare yourselves for an onslaught of photos.
sometimes i wish photography didn’t rely on subject matter.
i’m interested in taking photographs that reveal the process and the mechanization of the camera. i’m interested in exploring technical mistakes, lens flares, film errors, and issues in processing. i want to bring the focus back to the camera and back to the process of making imagery. i’m tired of photoshop art, tacky studio set-ups, and high budget imagery. i want to remind the viewer that what they’re looking at was made by an imperfect machine.
