Being
UTA BARTH
I have borrowed STILLED Contemporary Still Life Photography by Women from the college library. In it I have found several Photographers whom I had not heard of, and several whose work I would like to know more about. One of these photographers is Uta Barth. Her photography is about the act of seeing. She removes any sign of a subject from her images choosing to encourage the viewer to think about what he or she is actually "seeing," when there is in fact, seemingly very little to see. She almost commands the viewer to notice the absence of a subject.
The images are simple; she does conform to the traditional compositional rules of photography, but the lighting is exquisite and there is an elegance to the ambience of her images.
Barth draws our attention to the fact that when there is a subject in a photograph, that this is what we notice; the subject serves as a part of ourselves (we as photographers or artists); the object being an extension of ourselves. We seldom see the whole picture. We take for granted that there is a background or a foreground around the subject, and notice it only as a place that houses the subjects. But Barth is trying to convey that the world around us is not just a background, but that everything in the world, including the background, is as important as the subject. The photograph for her is the background.
I see a great beauty in Uta Barth's photographs. I like the spatial qualities, the quietness that emptiness brings with it. The lighting is so effective that when I see her work, I can feel the light as if I am standing in the picutre. For me, her photographs are warm and womb like. The background is always there, but when we stop to look at it, it holds an important narrative of its own.
The image that I chose for today, Being, is probably influenced on finding Barth's work. The Buddhist Philosophy is about being in the moment, enjoying the act of living in the now. I am not a Buddhist but I do agree with, and like some of their teachings. I think that Barth's work is part of this philosophy, she is reminding us that every part of our lives is important and that we shouldn't miss any of the details. My image has an object, and that object is an extension of me.
When I photograph the landscape I try and create a meditative effect and I don't always focus on a subject but I'm not sure that I had realised this until I saw Barth's work. In the work I'm doing in the Allotment, the subject is an important part of the images because I am trying to convey the human intervention in a green space in the city. But next time I visit the Allotment, I think I will try to shoot images that only have a small part in focus and see what happens.
The following three images are sourced from beautyinphotography.blogspot.com
Uta Barth's Ground Series
Seeing is forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Title of Robert Irwing Biography
Originally a line from a Zen text.
No comments:
Post a Comment