Rules
Rules are important in art because they give us a starting point, an accepted language. The aesthetics and poetry of art are all in the improvisation of those rules.
It is no mystery that I love chaos, I thrive on change and find beauty in adaptation. I guess that is why my adherence to this project and the strictness that I apply to this problem surprises me. In the beginning it was pure obsession. I recognized my attraction to formal art early on, still I was unsure of how this could or even if it should be applied to photography. I played with forms and process in printmaking and drawing classes but it never really seeped into my photography. It was the middle of the semester and an independent studies class where it was finally just too much, I HAD to do this project. Being as stubborn as I was I convinced my instructor that I should switch, but I had to agree to an entire letter grade reduction. I’m a little stubborn so I pushed ahead, confident in the project.
I pitched this to her: A formal project utilizing only straight lines and primary colors. All work would be produced in a single environment: Parking lots.
Everyone I knew thought I was crazy. I guess I was the only one that KNEW I was crazy.
Language
For three years I worked on building and adapting the rules of the project, but never once considered it real work. It was just practice. Practice in seeing, composing and of course the obsession of seeing texture and form drove me to continue refining. I didn’t understand then that I was refining the building blocks of the formal language of my work. That I was working out the structure of the letters, and starting to form words and hinting at meanings beyond the representation of decay.
That’s a little bit about when and how it all got started.
Participation
Buy a print of this image. Leave a comment on Flickr or Facebook. Tweet this post and share your thoughts about the image below.
Those that participate the most will win stuff! Up for grabs: a signed copy of Phoenix 22, a Tyson Crosbie Photography Tshirt (morse code), and several signed 5×8 prints.
