For the longest time, probably for as long as I have been practicing photography , I have been preoccupied with the sequence form in photography. First as a follower of Minor White who described his work as a “cinema of stills.” And well into the photobook craze and the notion of “narrative photography” (think Alec Soth and Ron Jude). I am currently working on a set of images and as usual I was intending on creating a photobook (more on this project in later posts). Lately though I have been mesmerized by the work of Kunie Sugiura (see above) and Uta Barth. Both of whom deal in the “objectness” of the photograph.
Uta Barth’s practice has centered on a nuanced investigation of visual experience, free from narrative. Light, color, the passage of time, and the shifting nature of the process of vision through bodily experience are the ongoing subjects of her resonant images, probed in various ways over decades. But in exhibitions she demonstrates a concern with the photograph as an object. In her early “Field” and “Ground” series she mounts the photographs on wood and they become not only images but objects. Even though she works on themes, her work is not narrative, they are experiments in seeing and visualization resulting in “pieces” of work.
So does the photographer Kunie Sugiura. In her practice she mixes photography with painting, as she explains: “While I was making the photocanvas series I was using acrylic paint, and at some point I thought ‘I do not need photographs any more’, and started just painting. But it got very difficult quickly, and I was not happy with painting only. I thought I needed photography as a component, but how to combine photography and painting? One day, I put one of my old photocanvas next to my painting and thought I do not have to mix them, I can just put a photograph and a painting next to each other for people to see them together, which is an interesting way to view images.” (quoted in Kunie Sugiura, catalog of an exhibition held at Alison Bradley Projects, March 7 to May 6, 2023).
The paintings that accompany the photographs are a singe block of color for the most part. But they create a tension with the photograph. The paintings, much like Ad Reinhardt’s famous Black Paintings, contain within them patterns and textures. In Sugiura’s work those textures and tones converse with the accompanying photographs.
Both of these artists have inspired me to think of my work in new ways. The photobook craze has gone as far as it can. It’s time for some new practices and methodologies in photography. Well, at least for me. Stay tuned as I post and discuss my current and future work on photographic pieces.
Force Of Seeing 