The 67th Year
In the spring of 2020, I will celebrate my 67th birthday. As I sit here on the eve of that new year and upcoming milestone, I find myself thinking about the slings and arrows of my life - the ups and downs, the experiences had, the experiences not had, the influences felt, the influences not felt, the things learned, the things unlearned, the things not learned at all - and how they have led to me being just who I am at this time and place. I am also thinking of a goal, or perhaps more of a challenge, that intrigues me. Can analog and digital photographic processes be combined in some innovative way that leads to compelling images that could not have been created by either approach alone? Is there some hybridized frontier waiting to be explored? Out of these thoughts, a project has emerged. Over the course of the weeks leading up to my birthday, I will reinterpret a single image 67 times. I embark with the hope that through forced repetition within a compressed timeframe some creative breakthrough will be coaxed into being.
The image I’ve chosen for the project is a unique artifact - an image on paper created by an unrepeatable analog process involving a snippet from my neighbor’s trumpet vine, sunlight, and chemistry. In some ways, my initial question is then meaningless - what you see here is the result of an unavoidable synergy of digital and analog methods. The roughly 4x5 inch original has been scanned in high resolution by a high end flat bed scanner to create a digital file. Whether this digital file is manipulated in software or printed for use in further analog processes, the hybridization of approaches was a given from the start. In addition, this sort of combination workflow is common place. So then, what am I seeking to explore? I believe that we are in the infancy of what might be accomplished by fully embracing the best of both analog and digital approaches. I hope to push myself a bit out of the mainstream into some fresh waters, embracing the ever more sophisticated advances in computational photography while holding on to the emotional connection - for me and the viewer - of a hands on medium and a sense of having created something real, something tangible, something tactile. If successful, I will stand fully in my present moment in time, pay homage to how I got here, and offer some innovative and creative results.
In doing research for this project, I found examples of uses of advanced digital technology - neural nets, machine learning, generative adversarial networks (GANs), etc - in a number of different areas of photographic practice, including image perfection, image creation, image visualization, image categorization and tagging, image in-painting, and image interpolation. Once an analog image has been digitized, all of these methods are as readily available to the artist as they would be for any image from a digital camera. So, having set aside the purity of an entirely analog approach, the options available are wide and expanding rapidly.
I think it is safe to say that most advanced uses of digital technology in photography today are focused on perfecting images - at the time of capture or after the fact. The emphasis seems to be on an automatic mode that corrects for all things in the blink of an eye. Gray, over-cast sky, sub-optimal light, sub-optimal gear, unwanted objects in the frame, subject with their eyes closed - no problem - truly point and shoot and let the software do all the fixing and polishing. I don’t find any of that personally objectionable, but It isn’t what I find exciting. There is also great debate on whether artificial intelligence methods will make photographers obsolete. Is there a future in which you just describe Grandma to a machine and it spits out an image of her that you can share with the family. This debate is of no interest to me. Whether that future is achieved or not seems immaterial. I believe that art and artists will always have a place in human society.
The frontier that interests me is where technology empowers me by aiding and abetting my creativity. I came across three examples in this project that excite me. What the folks at Polaroid Originals are doing is simple and yet so freeing. The Polaroid Lab allows any digital file to be printed on Polaroid film. And, of course, any Polaroid can be digitized. From digital to analog, from analog to digital and back to analog, a resonance chamber of sorts emerges. Their products invite real world, hands on, unlimited experimentation, and immediate sharing through the full embrace of light, chemistry, and technology. I wish them every success.
The folks at Infinite Texture Panel are also doing something very worthwhile with advanced technology. They are making it practically possible for the artist to effectively find and use specific textures within a library of thousands and thousands of textures. Their emphasis on providing navigational support in a world of almost infinite possibilities has very exciting implications in opening creative avenues for the artist on the digital frontier.
ArtBreeder.com's use of artificial technology combined with their genes and cross breeding metaphor is another winner, in my opinion. Perfection, homogeneity, conformance to a norm might be useful when you want to ensure that grandma’s birthday picture is the best it can be, but when it comes to making art, give me unexpected twists, unforeseen combinations, and odd outcomes any day. I eagerly look forward to what the talented people at ArtBreeder will do over the next few years.
Outside of the question of digital and analog hybridization, as I look at these 67 images, I see waves of more creative output arising at intervals. I also see cross-pollination of years of interest in various forms of visual expression. Perhaps I see what I am looking for, as these two things reinforce two of my core beliefs. The first is ‘just work’ - if I work, the inspiration will come. The second is that everything is synergistic. Each new interest, each new area of exploration and experimentation adds to the stew. Be it sweet or savory or bitter, I trust the process. This project has been a great way to start the year 2020. To paraphrase Minor White, what shall I be given next?