What is "realistic?"

Landscapes and seascapes are a ubiquitous subject for photographers, close second and third to sunsets no doubt. So here I am photographing the Hudson River and wondering what it all adds up to. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am interested in what it means to think, see and filter through ideas and images as we seek understanding of our digital world. We navigate through images and materials in a kind of impromptu, uncharted fashion. Connections and associations are often made in random, accidental ways. Our perceptions of our world is often experienced or learned through our digital devises. It is as if we are depending on already processed information, not on direct experiences. It is as if our understanding of our world were a ghost of the “real” thing. How does this shape who we are? How does it shift the way we spatially relate to our world? How does it affect our behavior?

I would like to project my videos large so the viewer cannot take it in all at once, but must scan the surface with their eyes. Our understanding of our world (things, people, landscapes and ideas) are not fixed but mutable, active and fluid. I present the river and sky as fragments; always as a partial rendition. I intend to photograph the river from Beacon NY down to the Battery of Manhattan. So far I have photographed seven sites. When I have all the locales (my goal is 12) I will edit them together to make a flowing “whole.” A river is the same river at its mouth and at its source yet it is never the same, it is a constantly changing cycle. These images will never capture the full identity of the river.

I began to make small 4x6” prints of some screen shots of the video to help me sequence them. They act as a sort of storyboard. I laid them out on the floor of my studio in an attempt to get a visual of the overall piece.  I was not intending to make single prints from these images but somehow I have grown fond of these as still images. While the video allows a temporal, layered experience, the stills become all surface. I resisted the print idea at first as I felt I would miss the light of the projector and the movement of the video but these prints have become their own quiet statement. A photograph can only present a surface and I am thinking I want to play with the idea of the surface of the photograph and the surface of the water. The sky becomes a surface as well.

 I don’t know how large I will make these but they will be grouped in threes and fours. These are work prints and are a bit sloppy.