RP Newsletter #10 - Photography has a lot of "more of the same but not really"
Plus NFT Photography, Fotomoto 2021, and other things.
I've been contemplating a question asked by a student in visual literacy class: If you can only photograph what exists, does that mean it is not original?
This lead me to a deep train of thought about originality, photography as object, and what a photographer is. A photographer shows. You can make an infinite amount of images as long as you can put things within the frame. That's it. But, time always marches, never recreated. You can only have one photograph of one exact point and time. This nature of photography's infinite reproducibility but only a single trait of uniqueness leads to photography having "A lot of the same but not really".
For example, Geloy Concepcion's "Things you wanted to say but never did" photography project. What started with Geloy asking his followers, things they wanted to say but never did and puts them in his own images has turned into a confessional of sorts. It captures the zeitgeist of a generation that no one listens to. They turn to a person on the internet to curate their thoughts. Geloy's images captures the aesthetic. It shows nostalgia or angst depending on the message. Sometimes, he adds illustrations in his images aside from the handwritten text. Add to that, the platform of choice is on Instagram. You have a perfect combination of a project with that resonates. The project has grown beyond Geloy's images and handwriting. He now allows people to submit images aside from their words. The work centers it away from the originator. It has become photographer as community
For those internet active 10-15 years ago, you can dismiss project as a copy of post secret. Still remember those?
This Photography is my proof by Duane Michals
There is nothing wrong with both. It would be disingenuous to dismiss Geloy's work as derivative. Then again, is writing on pictures such a new idea? Duane Michals already works with text and images with "This photograph is proof". Other artists can make things with the same idea or principle of putting their own words. Take note of Lia Candelario's therapy notebook photo object of sorts Notes to self, Notes to you:
To point, even Artu Nepomuceno writes his lighting diagrams on the images itself or blog style writings of his thoughts on the future of the medium. It looks like inspirational/motivational posters but hey they are his images and based on the feedback, it resonates. You can argue that the aesthetic is the same but not really.
Or this emulation by artist Keen Kong.
The methods are the same but not really.
Photography itself has lots of it.
Street photography has been the same for the past hundred years. Ever since Atget walked Paris which inspired Bresson which inspires street photographers until now. Dusseldorf School and the generations inspired by the New Topographics. Every person ever inspired to shoot zone system black and white images of nature. All these things are more of the same but not really. Looking into the nuances of each work we can trace similarities and lineage of the work (more on this in the future I suppose).
I guess my point is to not obsess with originality. Photography assumes that we are all on equal ground. You have a camera, so you can make pictures. In truth, the camera is the only thing that is common. The times we have them, the circumstances, our financial situation, our physical and mental space that we occupy at the moment of capture, and other things will be different for each individual. It is always going to be a matter of what are your pictures given the circumstances of what you have. The results may look the same as the ones made before but given the right context, not really.
Photography has a lot of the same but not really. Speaking of which,
FOTOMOTO 2021
Speaking of the same but not really, every 2 years or so, something comes around in Manila that showcases photography. There was Foto Semana by Thousandfold, Monomania by Vetro Gallery, and a few other efforts here and there. The latest iteration is Fotomoto. (Full disclosure, I was the writer of the exhibition notes for Fotomoto)
For their first foray, it was all about Portraits and its many facets. There was an invitational call which resulted in hundreds of images shown across different venues.
What I like was the fact that it made for a nice art hop from spot to spot. It brought foot traffic to the establishments which is much needed during this time. The event was well organized. The past years of not having a face to face interaction with photography has been sad so this is very much welcome.
There are points of improvement as for any huge attempt to showcase photography. The one thing that has been missing in the scene is consistency. Fotosemana didn't have a repeat same as Monomania. Other efforts don't even see the light of day. Whether are question of budget or man power, it has always been inconsistent as opposed to efforts from our neighbors such as SIPF, Angkor photo, Georgetown photo festival. I suppose they have scaled and managed to get consistent funding.
Manila's Photo Festivals always have great Presence but I will never know the real reason why it never gets repeats. I guess when my lotto numbers come up and I have the budget to mount my own, I will find out how it will all work. For now, I can only assume and hope that Fotomoto and similar efforts get a repeat.
Speaking of repeats.
NFT Photography
Apparently, 2022 will the year of NFT photography. After ape profile pictures, the next big thing will be NFT photos. Web 3.0 and how it will integrate into art is the dominant conversation. There's been a lot of talk of the good and bad (but a lot of bad). I can't help but notice most of the conversations felt like what happened with the boom of Web 2.0.
“Blogging is a fad. It won't take off. People won't embrace it. There's no career out of it. Buy a print or hire a photographer etc. instead”. Fast forward years later, people have careers because of Tiktok and Instagram without having set foot in an actual studio for a commissioned shoot.
Thing is, it is always easier to be dismissive of things we don't understand. The August Sander collection of 10,000 images dropped as part of an archive on the block chain. Filipino practitioners are minting their NFTs over at Foundation and OpenSea. There's a resurgence of street photography again because of the convenience of going out, shooting, then minting the day's work into the chain.
We are back in the wild wild west. The concept of America's western expansion is their attempt at copying European colonization. NFT and photography's relationship is at an early stage in a constant state of flux. It's too early to tell what will come of it. It cements that photography, aside from being an object, evidence, and/or document is now a commodity. I am open to the possibilities but if it means we lose what makes photography a beautiful medium, we'll see.
For now there have been a lot of push back. Mine mainly stems from the fact that everything has already been commodified. We pay for water, we never own land, and now we have to pay for air to be cleaned. If the creation and ownership of art becomes a full on commodity, what does that tell our society?
Ahh yes, yet another question that spells the doom of art. Like I said, same problems but not really.
In closing
2021 Felt like a ground hog year. It wasn't a good sign that the PH started 2022 with everyone in self-quarantine. In a way, we've been through all this but not really. I suppose we do what we can and live on a day to day basis. I hope everyone is documenting their experiences as 2022 might be a turning point for the country's history. So yeah, write on your photographs if you want to. I’m more bullish on the constant need of humans to create rather than minting every photo you have on the block chain. Depending who sits as the next president, the same things we always do might actually yield a different result.
More of the same and hopefully with good health more money.
Love and light everyone.
A.g.
My love and my light. My wife Hanna and my son Jupiter.