Photography is history
The subject of James Clerk Maxwell's famous first colour photograph, made in Edinburgh in 1861, was a ribbon. Sort of thing one might see at a dog show, or on a giant cucumber. A curious, quotidian choice. It will have been lying about, colourful, unmoving, probably all the necessaries. I made a copy of it. I thought perhaps a bit of magic thinking might give me insight into the history of photography. Perhaps it did, a bit. Haven't worn it yet though. I have always relished any excuse for making things. What can it be??
A phrase from childhood sticks with me… a grown-up in a gallery (I wasn’t in many) being amazed at a painting saying “...a picture like a real hand-painted photograph”. Even I knew that was crazy mixed-up. Still, there may be something of the fondness of mixed up I have kept. It still interests me. I went through a phase of doing my own real hand-painted photographs. This was brought to a sad end in 1995 when YBA Marcus Harvey had some kids paint a portrait of Myra Hindley. He used a technique similar to my own. After that I didn’t want to have anything much to do with it. It was in any case an interesting exploration of colour for me at that time, so all was not lost.
Photography can be so much. I thought it best to limit my exploration a bit. The quarrel between analogue-digital I like. Things far away and up close. Then there is the moving image. The focus blurs. I used to believe anything moving was intrinsically better art than anything still. In fact there is nothing much still. We change our minds constantly.
The green man of Cong https://youtu.be/ctgZ2LHI61Y
And there’s more…
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