I'm sorry; perhaps too intellectual for me. I think we can find yonic or phallic symbols anywhere we choose to and once someone says it is there, then of course, we see it. Otherwise, i just see a strip in the grass.
So probably for people with deeper vision than I, as I'm still at the level where something has to get me in my gut first.
It does one thing though, it kind of makes me feel ignorant and a bit stupid not to get that it is surely brilliant. I've certainly got a lot to learn.
nothing personal
Maggie
Maggie,
One of things OPF tries to do is to have a broad reach. Photography has to do a lot of things, document what is true, show what is imagined, record the magic of a child at it's mother's breast or it's first bicycle ride or some eager young woman catching the bride's bouquet. So how does this work?
This is where Mark's interest in "reading images" becomes meaningful. You can find many teachers of photography describe how the eye enters your picture here and then moves to the next point of interest. It turns out that all the professors were wrong. Yes it appears we follow paths of interest, but we really don't. So this is what interests Mark,
"Just what makes us get our immediate and then considered reactions and understanding of images?"
He's used this to make his own art. He takes the risk that what he makes is nonsense. Yes it's really obscure to most of us much of the time! However, it's one branch of photography that can perhaps expose us to better understanding and therefore hone our own skills. Yes it's "academic", (even "pseudo-academic") and "artsy fartsy" combined. Still, we do need broad tolerance and welcoming of testing the boundaries of what we term photography. It includes treasuring classic silver gelatin, respecting pinhole and Holga work as well as reworking images we took years ago when we were different persons with other points of view.
I too sometimes find marks work beyond me, hence I have to see what I can in his work. So hence my remark on seeing nude in his Y mark. After all I'm seeing that in my studio right now. So that's my only connection. Maybe there's nothing more to connect too, but in making that jump, I realized some simplicity I might introduce in my own work.
So Maggie, don't let this bother you if you feel it's smartness above your head or crap beneath your feet. Those are reactions that are all viable. "Reading images", we thought we all understood, but now maybe we don't!
I wish I could say I can follow every single one of Mark's images, but I cannot. So you are not alone! Still, it's a valid and valuable part of the broad landscape we can make our journey in and pick up tools and resources on the way.
So, if you feel that most of this you can safely walk by, you will not be alone. Hopefully, there will be rare occasions when Marks work will give us an idea or insight worth taking with us.
Asher
