Aesthetically speaking, photographers and realist painters have a great deal in common; they have a similar way of looking at the world and an appreciation for the details that are so often lacking in contemporary art. The elements of composition are the same, whether one is taking a photograph or creating an image on canvas with paint and brush and both disciplines employ a universal language of symbols and forms in order to communicate with the viewer. This last point, I believe, is the most important: Realists, whatever their chosen medium, express a view that our subjective experience of the world can, at best, be only part of the story. Though we each certainly have a unique way of perceiving the world – which is important, in it's own way – there is also a belief in some fundamental, objective reality. It is this common ground that allows the artist to share his vision effectively. As
Pietro Annigoni, the preeminent portrait artist of our age, once stated:
“
All artist should be able to say something new in an old language.” The imagery of the real world – the "representational" – is a defacto common language by which we communicate with one another. In our Postmodern world, it is as important as ever to recall the words of Robertson Davies' character
Maestro Tancred Saraceni, who, when speaking of modern art, reminds us that: "Nothing is so easy to fake as the
inner vision." (my italics)
Not surprisingly, perhaps, in my own career as an artist, I have been inspired almost as much by photographers as I have painters. The works of Henri Cartier Bresson, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Ansel Adam, to name but a few. Ironically, though I am very obviously disposed toward realism, the Surrealist photography of Man Ray has been the greatest inspiration in my painting. The changes that have occurred in my work over the last 3 years or so, are largely the result of this influence – the elements of a familiar, prosaic reality, fragment, re-ordered and framed, in such a way as to accentuate the aspects of this world that are lost in oversimplification.
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