This is the introduction from Hags book ‘How Things Are’
As Fredrick Nietzche (1) said: “We have art so we won’t die of reality”. But what is reality?
Art is as real as my desk, so is my desk art? Images speak of our inner being and have a profound and resonant power. Photographs show us how things are. They speak to us in a universal language. Photographs don’t lie. That is what we believe. In this digital age, we now commonly recognise that this is not quite what we thought it was. We are never sure if a picture has been manipulated. Photographers have always known this to be the case. Photographs don’t lie, but they have a point of view. This is a selection of my work over the last 34 years with a commentary on each image. Most of the work was commissioned, though some I adjusted after the client had gone away.
I create these pictures in the darkroom using a process called Combination Printing, a technique that has been in use since the 19th century. A computer is not involved. Each element is exposed from its original negative onto the same sheet of photographic paper that is moved between enlargers. This combines the images, with no loss of quality. It produces a unique original print each time the exposure process is completed, creating a limited number of prints for each image. The commentaries were written for each picture in random order, and then placed in sequence by the visual order of the book. It is remarkable how these texts have fallen into a narrative of my concerns by a process of chance. This appeals to my sensibilities.
Well, here we are reading a book (screen) … enjoy the pictures.
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Collage Montage Surreal Photography
