Christopher Blay

The Box

2011-12-12T10:57:00.001-06:00

A short fable about the mutability of discarded things. Music, objects and video by Christopher Blay

Homecoming Committee

2011-12-06T15:33:00.004-06:00

Muybridge's Closet

2011-12-06T13:42:00.002-06:00

Installation in a closet space at RE:Studio's temporary warehouse space Incorporating found painted lines on concrete floor that mimic graphs from Muybridge's experiments with motion capture. The Installation also included reimagined large format camera bodies. November, 2011

Art Depreciation 1301: Art before and after culture

2011-09-21T15:19:00.003-05:00

I've just begun reading Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga, and it makes me laugh. It refers to the study of the play element of culture. Homo Ludens (man the player, or playing man) is a necessary part of what I do. Huizinga implies (so far), that maybe I can't help it. Art is so damn funny. In Art Depreciation I'm exploring the fuzzy border between art and pop culture. No value judgments, just exploring. The use of the Wheel of Fortune category "before and after" seems perfect as a device to reconstruct art from its cultural adjacents. The names of artists are combined with pop Icons and works like Matthew + Barney are created. Below from left to right: Samuel L. Jackson Pollock, L'il Wayne Thiebaud, Anselm keifer Sutherland, Steely Dan Flavin and Carl Andre the Giant.

Haltom City Stories Project

2011-08-18T14:24:00.004-05:00

The Haltom City Stories Project is an idea that evolved from my work on the Hidden Views project at the Fort Worth Public Library. While going through that library's archives I discovered audio cassette tapes and 8mm movies that recorded the voices of ordinary citizens and created a unique tapestry of the city. I'm also a fan of the story corps project and wanted to borrow that idea with something more specific to Haltom City. The project took place on Saturday August 20, from 10am-5pm at the library. Watch video Here

Standard Model: Myths for a Standard Model of Photography

2011-07-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Exhibit at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, Dallas, TX. July 23-September 11, 2011

Nature and Nurture

2011-06-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

I've been working as a teaching artist at the Bob Jones Nature Center in the city of Southlake this June. I've been working with 16 students, teaching them the cyanotype process and exploring the relationships between art and science. We are also working with the Cornell lab of Ornithology's " Celebrate Urban Birds " project and doing bird counts of urban birds. Above are a few examples of cyanotypes that we created with materials from our nature walks and some pictures from our time at the nature center.

Frank Artsmarter Stands

2011-06-07T16:13:00.000-05:00

Untitled from Christopher Blay on Vimeo.

Frank Artsmarter Stands For Art

2011-06-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

Frank Artsmarter Stands For Art from Christopher Blay on Vimeo.

Hidden Views: Exploring the Archives of the Fort Worth Library

2011-01-12T16:04:00.000-06:00

Pictures from the Installation: Hidden Views: Exploring the Archives of the Fort Worth Public Library. January 3 through March 22, 2011.

Time Machine Beta

2011-01-12T15:39:00.000-06:00

Videos from the Installation of the same Title. Conduit Gallery, Dallas. October 2010.

Time Machine Beta from Christopher Blay on Vimeo.

Blue Trinity from Christopher Blay on Vimeo.

10th Annual Thrift Art Gallery Show and Auction

2010-07-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

The birth of Frank Artsmarter. Frank Artsmarter is the brilliant and sophisticated, yet culturally vacant mastermind behind the greatest, if not the most significant art collection of modern times. Rejected by his peers, he has used his cunning over the past 10 years to excavate the most treacherous and dangerous art ever made into a violently prescient and unrivalled collection. Frank took posession of the Thrift Art Gallery in December 2009 and has big plans for the collection, and for Art. Here is a snippet of what Artsmarter has been up to: Frank's Videos

The Un-exhibit

2009-10-23T19:07:00.000-05:00

I wonder what would happen if I created an installation that was only described in a press conference and never seen. I wonder if i could obscure a video of the installation with a time stamped blank screen, and submit that at a press conference as proof of the installation. What would that say about video as art? Would the described work be diminished if it were never seen, only described? Can the same be said of a video of a body of video or film work?

The Trial of Charles Taylor

2009-02-03T15:28:00.000-06:00

This current body of work, Microaudiotellarevolution: From the PRC to the TRC, is neither a documentary nor a narrative of events, but rather a template placed over war and conflict everywhere.

The structure of Microaudiotellarevolution is based on the use of technology in representation, and in this context, the use of media technology in war and conflict. In his Philosophy of Photography, Vilem Flusser talks about degrees of abstraction from a photograph to the object, suggesting the absence of a true evaluation of the role the machine plays in translation from object to image. The way I use technology here is counterintuitive to function, and I believe that the circumventing of technological function in this way emphasizes the fallacy of techno-representation. It is also a commentary I think, on how we view conflict and war. We experience it on television and other media, not in direct proximity.

In conclusion, this work, I think is not only about the tragedy of war and conflict, but a certain futility in translating such experiences into a visual equivalence. This built in fallacy is perhaps a revelation of how we can separate events from objects and create new experiences informed by both.

Thrift Art Auction 2008

2008-10-22T13:50:00.000-05:00

What is the Value of Art? Who Decides? The Thrift Art Auction is a low
brow aim at the highbrow concept of art value. The auction bidding
starts at .50 cents ( a very socialist, we're all equal ideal from the
commie bastards). The works (in the Marxist sense of the word ) are
from local Thrift Stores and I make a sweet Capitalistic profit that I
then use to buy more Thrift art and continue the futile cycle that may
never resolve the questions!

From PRC to TRC

2008-08-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

The title of this body of work comes from acronyms that describe organizations that have affected the people of Liberia.
The PRC or People's Redemption Council was formed in April 1980 and the TRC or Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed in 2008. In the interim 28 years the country of Liberia was profoundly transformed by coup, civil war and ethnic cleansing. The TRC is currently gathering stories from people directly affected. My current body of work in a very personal way
explores the idea of displacement as a result of war and violence. It also, I think , has something to do with memories and trauma of war.

About Time

2008-05-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

Recent photographs from the time machine experiments.

When art doesn't make sense

2007-12-05T00:14:00.000-06:00

When does art make sense? Is it when concepts are illuminated, and all meanings explored, resolved and defended? Or is it when a gesture, bold and unrefined is birthed? What is it that the art student and the professor of art struggle with? Is there a gesture that can be taught, a right way to make art?

Yes there is. One must learn and perfect a method in order to have at one's disposal the myriad possibilities of a medium. However, there should be a distinction between learning the methods and tools of a medium and perfecting said medium. Perfection can be measured in decades and in a lifetime, and learning a method can be measured in shorter periods of time.

So here's the question:Do you have to perfect a medium in order to express your concepts with it? And if so, does this render what you do in the interim, meaningless "practice"?

WAR: A Coloring book by Christopher Blay

2007-11-06T18:25:00.000-06:00

War comes in beautiful and vivid color. Let's explore together!

Unresolved Issues...

2007-10-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

Time Machine Beta

2007-10-03T19:39:00.000-05:00

The Czec philosopher Vilem Flusser in his 'philosophy of photography' talks about the ability of the camera to manipulate space and time. Space (depth of field) is controlled by the aperture of the lens and manipulates the distance between objects and the camera. Time (length of exposure) is manipulated by the camera shutter. In essence the camera is a time machine.

The purpose of my time machine is to explore(conceptual)space/time through mechanical means,in the same way that I see the camera as a machine that manipulates this concept of space/time.Images of 'subjects' taking trips through time move the experience through these manifestations of space. Time trave is both a conceptual and a virtual space. When we reference the idea past, we go to a certain space, to a certain time. When we experience present, we refrence the space called "here and now". But this space is itself instantly transformed. It doesn't remain the here and now.

When the session begins, one of the possibilities is that there is a focus on the present , the contemplation of the past and the zero reference of the future. Zero reference being an non specific destination that transforms even as it is referenced.

In much the same way as the camera does, the time machine manipulates space/time by referencing the past present and future through typed in and dialed choices. Where would you like to go? What experiences would you like to revisit, or create? These same questions are asked by the Camera and most of our choices with both machines are the same.

The History of Photography, or how the photograph and the camera are twins

2007-09-24T21:52:00.000-05:00

The Photograph and the Camera as twins. The mechanical camera and the mechanical image, seperated at birth. Part of installation sketches in my studio right now. Stay tuned.

The History of Photography , continued...

2007-09-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

I participated in a group show on September 8th in Fort Worth at the Warehouse Gallery. I Installed 3 pieces in the show that relate to my ongoing "History of Photography" works. This piece, Composition With Window, is my response to the Visual window (Alberti,Davinci, etc.). I redefine the space by recomposing images outside the window and using the space as subject rather than as a framing device for the object.

In "Self Portrait as a house" I re-imagine the photgraph as a tool of memory and of meaning. I enjoy using elements like Windows, screens, doors, etc. I can relate these elements as metaphors or as a literal reconstruction of myself through photographs. Photographs of course have no meaning beyond reconstruction in our minds. I mean the scene depicted is no more related to the actual scene than the paper in your hand is related to where the image was first constructed. It is through our learned visual references that we reconstruct a scene based on a photograph. My argument is then, why not fuck with the meaning of the photograph by REconstructing it in a lego's kind of way, to emphasize the non specific nature of photography?

In my final piece " The Camera VS. The photograph" I declare victory for the camera by overpowering the image with a really large camera. The camera is a mechanical "co-pilot" to the photographer. However photographers relish distancing themselves from the device, as if to say, " this is a mere tool and all this work, this composition and this beautiful scene, is all my doing. Bullshit.

Tinker

2007-08-06T22:01:00.000-05:00

A work in progress: Photographs of people I know. These images will appear in some as yet to be determined configuration in the very near future.

Finished Maquette, Flying Machine

2007-06-26T21:52:00.000-05:00

Here are images of the finished Maquette of the concept for Dallas as it would appear in the building. The finished sculpture may differ a bit from the Maquette in pitch, obviously scale and surface finish, but this is the basic idea.

Flying Machine Progress

2007-06-22T18:02:00.000-05:00

Here are some images of the progress I've made on my flying machine. The wing units and the staining of the canvas are complete. The next step is assembly and hanging for presentation. I'll also shoot the mockett and digitize it into the space before final presentation.

The History of Photography continued...

2007-06-20T19:34:00.000-05:00

These images are from an Installation at Studio 817 in Fort Worth,March 2007. It is a continuation of the History of Photography series of installations that explores the camera and the process of image making as a serious counterpoint in the dialogue of photographic meaning.

We often look at the image and the photographer seperately from the machine when discussing the meaning of a photograph. But I've come to recognize the integral nature of the machine in image making and investigate that link through this series of installations.

There is a stack of encyclopedae precariously positioned on the floor of the gallery with a compact flash card from a digital camera suspended above it. The top encyclopedia is opened to a page about the camera and suggests a link between the text, the technology and the camera.

The other installation piece is a slide projector that projects an image from a previous installation onto a camera and book titled "Text Photo Text". The book ocillates on a turntable and there are photo strips suspended above the assembly. As the light from the projector hits the book, the resulting image flicker on the projection screen 4 ft. in front of the assembly.The flicker and the elements of flash, pictures, text and revolving motion delves into the connection of the mechanics and the photograph.

The Vagina Monologues Installation, March 2007

2007-06-12T23:12:00.000-05:00

I created a site specific installation in the Parish Room of the House Of Blues in New Orleans. It featured a velvet panel with oragami Vaginas(ginagami)and a blue satin ribon that extruded from the panel and into the audience. I wanted to make this piece for the organization in support of what they do, but it goes without saying that I had a LOT of fun making it.

Violence against women is prevalent, especially in conflict zones around the world. But beyond that almost all violence against women is inflicted by men, usually family members. The panels in this installation were constructed to resemble Iconic religious panels in the tradition of the early church.Altar pieces if you will. They symbolize the sacred nature of the female sex. The blue ribbon symbolizes man. The pieces were all constructed from discarded Victoria Secret gift bags, connecting the sacred and the profane.

After Davinci's Flying Machine

2007-06-12T17:12:00.000-05:00

This is a proposal in progress for a replica of Davinci's flying machine. It will be aproximately 8ft long by 3 ft wide, suspended by cables in the atrium of a design firm in Dallas, Tx. The flying machine was the client's idea and I am left with the task of interpreting Davinci's concept through the filter of the client's.

My proposal is to create the wings in metal and canvas sections, welded, sewn and rivited together. Here are a few images of progress on the 3 ft prototype.

Coming Soon...

2007-05-29T19:32:00.000-05:00

I have a long awaited update in the works. I will post my two most recent installations and exhibits and sketch what I'll be working on next. There will also be images from my performance piece "Who Wants To Be an Artist". Check back in a few days, please.

The Willie Lynch Letters:Installation

2006-12-20T21:26:00.000-06:00

The Willie Lynch Letters: installation is a collection of four panels I created for a stage production of the same name. The panels were an assemblage of found advertising posters, Plexiglas, Polaroid prints, text, black masking tape, rope, wire and photo frames.

This is my first collaboration with a theater company, creating work specifically for the stage. My approach to the installation was to reflect on the word lynch, and build the panels around that theme. Each panel had an identical advertising poster that was used as the backdrop.

The thesis of this installation, if you will, is to coerce the addressees (audience) into the space. The scale of the panels, the poignancy of the images, all suggest an attempt to unsettle and overwhelm the addressee and to invade the 4th wall of theater. Having done that, the experience is more intravenous and the feed into concepts is more direct.

Asphalt Sketches

2006-11-19T16:41:00.000-06:00

Notes from 2002 sketch book.

Art V. Bullshit, Part ll

2006-11-07T21:37:00.000-06:00

Conceptual Art and art with context, vs.Naive art ( intuitive art, self-taught art). This was the subject of afternoon tea today. A lot was said about the complexities of conceptual art and the validity of niave art, but the underlying thread was the unavoidable value judgements placed on all art when catagories are imposed.
What is art ( la question la plus répétée), and why does it have to be fillet into these crazy sections?
When I make art, i deal with concepts, some of which are to be grasped and some of which elude any difinitive explanations. It is the way of the art. I think that when I make something and decide to inject it into the arena Art, then i can expect some of the addressees to consider it in the context of the genre Art. As such, i feel an obligation to embue that "work of Art" with the wealth of context that informs it. The adage is that "art is not created in a vaccume". I take this to mean that art is influenced by everything. If i say "I just made this because i wanted to make something" or " there's no meaning behind this", or " I just came up with this", then you can point to the fact that there are concious and subconcious decisions that go into everything that we do as human beings. One can no sooner make a declarative political statement and retreat, than one can apply what they make as art and declare that it has no meaning. There are certainly decorative arts and commercial arts( again with the catagories ) that are no less important as objects of beauty, but is art an all inclusive, all access 7-11 of human expression? I don't know the answer.
This is not to say that art requires an art degree or an academic treatise, but rather that if one puts an object into the arena of art, than it has to be critiqued as art, an as such it's context and content come into play.

... I think categories provide a viable conduit between art/artist and their addressees. The creation of categories however, invariably includes the one and excludes the other. So then the criteria for these categories can also be critiqued in the context of understanding better what is before us.If I say, "good concept", "good form" or "good conveyance", what do I mean? What is "good"? Who establishes "good" and how objective is that descriptive? Or can it be objective?
The academic response to that can easily be said to favor culture, environment and experience, because for instance what Michael Auping at the Modern considers good form or conveyance, is not the same as, say the "curator" at the thrift store on Jacksboro Highway! You know what I mean? The anticipated response to that is “well, the thrift store guy is just accepting donations, putting them out and pricing them." That process fascinates me because it is the same context in which a museum curator works. Curator visits galleries, peruses catalogues, view other collections, and buys at auction what is "good", in concept, form and conveyance. Thrift guy goes through donations, looks on eBay, views what else is out there on the thrift floor and "values" the piece based on what's out there. It seems conditioned by what has come before, more so than a scrutinized and constant investigation of the established criteria.
So what I’m saying is that in order to appreciate art, one not only has to find ways into the art that are less traveled, but one must put in the extra time to go beyond the categories, the context and the criteria. One must blaze a trail to the thing itself and let the flames of that blazed trail melt away the brush and thorns, the overgrowth of established ideas, and the waxy veil that obscures that consummation with the object of our disdain or desire.

Calavera( 1st Movement)

2006-11-02T20:59:00.000-06:00

Celebrating the day of the dead. I installed an assemblage titled Calavera( 1st Movement) at the Metrognome Collective in Fort Worth on Wednesday, November 1st. This is the first attempt to respond in a public space to the concept of death and life. The assemblage is derived from polaroid grid film images, dead thistle plants, acryllic paint, floating plexi-glass suspended by wire, and black glossy backdrop paper from the dumpster at The Gap.

the female form suggests birth/rebirth, and the thistles the prickly realities of death. I also suspended ghost-like images of the subject, floating in front of the ground to amplify the temporal nature of life.

Working with concepts of things can be rather academic, so there are soft elements in the form and gestures that suggest the joy of life and living.

Quilt Installation

2006-10-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

I have been decidedly facinated with the idea of the grid over the past couple of years and i'm currently working on a series of grid panels for installation in 2007. This has made me look back at a studio installation i did late last year as i was working on my Flusserian Photo Booths.

The quilt installation and other works on grid patterns explore the concepts of truth and photography. The grid defines truth by establishing a point of reference at the intersection of the x and the y axis. This idea of truth in two dimensional space is interesting when you consider that the photographic image is itself defining or seeking to define a "point" in time, a precise moment that can be referenced for "truth".

As I worked on my installation another thing that occured to me was the use of the grid by computer systems to define pixiels, which are the building block of electronic (digital) images. The patterns of zeros and ones, the absence and presence of things, all in the grids that are formed when xy axis intersect.

The installation consisted of six quilts laid out on the floor of my studio, each with a pillow and each with a collage of images from the past and the present. Some images contained only darkness or light, others had formed picture surfaces, and they formed these patterns of the absence and presence of things, (x and y axis) coming together to define a moment. The quilts were sort of the canvas of the installation, itself containing patterns of square grids that were assembled from random "moments" that coagulated into one. These spot lit tableux played also with the space between the objects and the darkness, when lit in this manner, which further isolated the "points" in the "space".

Dangling Bodies and The Dangers of Photography

2006-10-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

The above image, " la photographie peut être dangereuse" deals with the image in photography, as it relates to the photographic apparatus. By photographic apparatus here i reference not only the camera but the toxic chemical process, the image and the object of the lens. In this work I've used the female form to represent the object of male gaze. The red glossy surface and the multiple self portrait strips reflect back that gaze. The power chord that is drilled into the vagina and connects to the camera suspended in front of the figure adds to the arguement of the power structure of the Art Industrial Complex. Where does the power lie? In the object, the camera or the mind of the photographer? Or is it the image itself?

In " Dangling Bodies" i make commentary on the integral dialectic between the image and the apparatus. On the one hand the image is often critiqued as a stand alone object, somehow magically produced by the photographer and independent of any strong "influence" from the apparatus. I argue elsewhere for the consideration (based on the writings of Vilem Flusser) that the image is a product of the apparatus, somewhat independent of the photographer. Because when the camera is used properly (or according to the directions for rendering beautiful, sharp and artsy images) , the photographer is merely following the protocol of the Photographic Apparatus, and becomes a fuctionary of said apparatus. The adjustments of apperature, shutter speed, focus, etc. Even the choice of subject and film, or in the new digital age the choice of shooting raw files vs jpegs etc, are all predetermined selections. The permutations are seemingly endless, yet they are finite to the program. It is only when one reassembles these elements that you can truly begin to understand the impact of the image and the apparatus of the camera. In Dangling Bodies i argue for the consideration of the camera and its program not only as tools, but as communication codes in and of themselves.

Studio Time

2006-10-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

I was working in my studio today and this question entered my head: "What the fuck are you doing out here with the heat index at 109 degrees?". "Why do you do it?". The obvious and standard responses came to mind; "Well, it's what I do and I wouldn't rather do anything else.". I was working on one of 8 new pieces for shows next month, and I guess that is as good a WHY as any, but 8 hours later, the question still nags. Why Do I make art, and why is it so important. I could have studied something more financially rewarding considering the responsibilities and student loans that I have. I bet for the hours that I put in towards specific shows, I probably make less than sweat shop wages! And today my studio was a sweat shop! It is one thing if It was a commission or if it was gaurenteed to sell, but it's a totally different thing when you know that it requires some digestion on the part of the viewer, and that it may be totally inaccessable to any mass audience! It is definitely not a decorative piece, and considering the size and weight ( the metal window frame is about 80 pounds), it's only for the serious collector.That owns a warehouse. That gives a flying frisbee what Christopher Blay creates.etc.etc. Another thing is that I make no pretense about my desire to engage my audience through critical review and non-Art Complex spaces. So it seems that not only am I making art that is too damn heavy to put in your living room, I'm also making art in this fuckin texas heat(without cerveza's) that I don't want to be considered in any traditional art related venues that are a part of the Art Industrial Complex!
I don't have a strong answer to why I make art, so I'll stick to the standard response: I can't see myself doing anything else with my life. It is my response to my personal existentialist dilema.

How I continue to save photography from itself

2006-10-08T23:36:00.000-05:00

So, what's new in your studio, Christopher?

Well, I gave myself an impossible deadline to make something for an art auction (EASL). I looked around the studio and decided to continue exploring the impact of the camera on image making, and the overlooked symbiosys of camera and image.

Vilem Flusser, a poet and philosopher, wrote extensively about communication and photography, and his ideas are infused in what i make.
His philosophy on photography is that photographs are Technical Images, made by a machine(apparatus) which itself is based on Text (technical writing), and text is an abstraction of images (pre-historic) that are abstracted from the real 3d world. As such, it's important to examine the role (function) of the camera in image making so that we become programmers, rather than mere functionaries of the photographic program.

In my exploration of these theories and philosophies, I'm reprograming the camera by sort of pushing the images back through the lens to the other side to see what comes out. I am unphotographing the concept photography and just fuckin with it and having a blast. It's still photography, but reprogrammed. More later.

The History Of Photography ( or how I saved photography from a near death experience )

2006-04-10T22:11:00.000-05:00

The title of this piece The History Of Photography ( or how I saved photography from a near death experience ) is a tongue in cheek declaration of how photography is almost dead. In fact I believe the opposite. Photography is alive but misunderstood. Marginalized if you will, because if this misunderstanding. When I first approached picture making with cameras,I was eager and in awe of the chemical process, its seemingly limitless possibilities for creative expression, and its sheer magic! Watching a picture appear from a latent image on a sheet of photo paper is nothing short of magical!

However, I soon realized as the years went on that photography, the act of making photographs, is a finite expression, and quite exhaustable. I soon tired of my own images and that of other photographers. Not because they were boring or uninspired, but because the same themes and modes of photographing was constantly being recycled! There were no distinctions between the images of the past and present.The differences were superficial and had more to do with the evolution of the technology of image making than the images themselves.

STATES OF THINGS: A FLUSSERIAN MODEL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

2006-03-28T21:42:00.000-06:00

I see the Photo Booth as a unifying theoretical model of Vilem Flusser's writings.It is an automaton that interacts directly with the subject, making that person both an addressee and fuctionary of the Photo Industrial Complex.

In his writings, Flusser describes the Apparatus, Program, Information and Image as his four pillars in a theory of photography. My Installation is based on these four pillars and as an Apparatus the Photo Booth incorporates them all. The booth has a camera (apparatus) that is designed to work with the internal mechanics (program) to produce an output (image) that is consumed (information). It is a re-interpretation of the photograph as an image of POST HISTORY as described by Flusser.

- The books and bottle labels represent text ( advanced scientific text that produce apparatuses) .
-The photo chemical bottles and silver wire represent the chemistry and scientific nature of photography and further link them to text.
-The screens represent the obscured perspective from which we look at the image and the window ( the illusion of looking through a window into the concrete world when we view images).

In the Installation, the space and the work of art were absorbed into each other and existed together in a dialectic. The location of the beams affected the position of the booths. The window panes interacted with the windows of the space, repeating their shapes, forms and materials, erasing the boundaries between the art and the space. Where the form of the art intersected with the function of the space, the artifice of the artistic - scientific border became clear and communication could ensue.

For a review of this installation by the Fort Worth Weekly, clich here.

New Reality

2006-03-14T22:01:00.000-06:00

The reality of a mediated world is something that interests me and something that is increasingly a part of the total reality. I think one can extrapolate this concept to photography which I have in my own work, in the sense that images (pictures) function in that regard but are often overlooked and considered "windows" into reality, versus veils that not only mediate but often obscure reality.

Exerpt from journal July 7th 2005 on Photography

2006-02-27T22:54:00.000-06:00

I wrote the following after reading some of Vilem Flusser's thoughts on Photography and I attribute some of the concepts to his original writings on photography:

Photography is like a book of chess puzzles, games and combinations. The image is like one of the many possible combinations. Although no one player can exhaust every game or every combination, these combinations are non the less finite. The book has been written. My inquiry into photography is theoretical. Instead of producing images in an already exhausted series of combinations, ie; art, the nude, the documentary etc., I combine and evaluate the images I find or create, so as to reduce the program to its simplest series of combinations in order to decode the information.

One can argue that to get to the information, one simply has to read the context in which the image is created. For example if it is a photojournalistic image then you consider the audience and publication and so forth, or if it is scientific then one can read it from that perspective. Yet philosophers like Flusser have shown that it isn't that simple, that all these " channels " of various programs that create images still follow the general program of the apparatuses that produce them.

Christopher Blay