First Day | Look forward and back Like the two-headed Roman god Janus For whom January is named |
"And to make an end is to make a beginning." — T.S. Eliot
W hen we look at any photograph we are dealing with an abstraction.
In 1922 Alfred Stieglitz started an extended series of cloud photographs which he named "equivalents". He selected this word because he believed these photographs were equivalents of his fundamental philosophy of life. Later he described all his photographic work as "equivalents".
The 'equivalent' is based on the proposal that images stimulate specific mental states in the viewer. The specific subject matter, while not vanishing, moves away from primary conceptual significance.
Change is the most persistent feature of human experience, and its boundaries are flexible. Our perception of reality is always extremely narrow based on limited sensory physiology tempered by experience.
"What you see is real - but only on the particular level to which you've developed your sense of seeing. You can expand your reality by developing new ways of perceiving". - Wynn Bullock
Art is a way of life based on the need to create something in response to sensation, perception, cognition, and experience. It is an eternal process that contributes to understanding and perpetuates growth and development. A work of art is an end in itself, but also indicates the path taken and the progress made.
