It is a question I get asked a lot. The answer is not an easy one, well it is if I want to repeat old standards like “because I wanted to” or “because I wanted to see what something looked like as a photograph” or “because I like making beautiful things” not so much for me.
I was jotting down some thoughts this morning and I thought about what I do when I make photographs. I won’t go into the making paper emulsion and coating things or the whole “hand made” tangent, it’s not generic.
I go somewhere else. it doesn’t matter where, it’s just somewhere else. I collect the invisible rays of light with a butterfly net. some of it sticks to the paper some flys right through.
after the paper is developed into photographs. I hold them in my hands and study them in the light. I look at the white and black tones, I look at the silvery grey and deep brown. I recognize when might have been in front of the lens, and I don’t. I don’t remember much. I try to remove myself and be invisible because I am an inconsistent storyteller. I lie, I make things up. I am unreliable like these photographs. they are made up. every time the images are recorded they tell a different story. they can’t find their bearings, they make it up as they go along like the rest of us.
I want to be invisible, I think that’s why I photograph.
