statement by the artist


The Photograph as magical object (1970)

A photographer could be considered a kind of magician, a being possessed
of very special powers that enable him to control mysterious forces and
energies outside himself. The photographer's intensely heightened sense
perception, product of the brutal discipline of constantly seeing at 1/250th of
a second, unevenly evolves his visual faculties to an almost superhuman
degree. With these highly-developed instincts, he seems to be able to almost
anticipate the activities of his subjects and sometimes actually appears to
cause their occurrence by some mental will power of his own that projects
outward, making reality conform to his mentally-conceived image of it that he
records on film. Often his best photographs are taken in a trance-like state,
where there is an almost unspoken mystical communication between his
subject and himself, and action is directed through non-verbal gesture and
psychic transference. As a trained observer, he can foretell the potential
movements of his subjects and perhaps even by mental intimidation and
expansion actually causes them to happen. The photographer participates
in an almost ritual dance with the world, whereupon his own intense re-
sponse to its rhythrns corresponds to his being able to predict its predeter-
mined patterns.

The photographic image itself has great magical possibilities. Like the cere-
monial mask, the ritual incantation, the protective amulet, or magical mandala,
the photograph has the potency of releasing in the viewer preconditioned
reactions that cause him to physically change or be mentally transformed.
In fact, because of our intense belief in the factual literalness of the photo-
graph, it can provoke even stronger reactions than other graphic media. A
photograph can more often »grab our guts« or arouse our sexual desires
than other art forms because of its purported realness, but it can also more
subtly stimulate unconscious responses that we are hardly aware of. The
grotesque or frightening image may stir forgotten animal instincts of primordial
helplessness and fear, reaching back to the basic insecurity of early man and
our own personal childhoods. Images of great peace and harmony have the
curative possibility of restoring tranquillity and balance to a disturbed soul or
agitated body. The photographic image which hints at the essential mystery
of growing things and the unknown qualities of life itself can make the viewer
aware of higher states of nature to which we are faintly sensitive. The ma-
gical photograph is simply one that attempts by its mere assertive presence
to go beyond the immediate context of the recorded experience into realms
of the undefinable. The photographer as magician is just someone who is
more acutely aware of the subliminal »vibrations« of the evervday world
which are wrapped up in our unconscious selves. He is, himself, totally
»opened« to the multiplicities of associations that are submerged behind the
appearances of the objective world. He uses the repressed mythology of
dreams and the archetvpal designs of geometry to conjure up deep and
irrational reactions from the viewer.

Perhaps why so much of today's photography doesn't »grab us« or mean
anything to our personal lives is that it fails to touch upon the hidden life of
the imagination and fantasy which is hungry for stimulation. The documentary
photographer supplies us with facts or drowns in humanitv, while the picto-
rialist, avantgarde or conservative, pleases us with mere aesthetically cor-
rect compositions - but where are the photographs we can pray to, that
will make us well again, or scare the hell out of us? Most of mankind's art
for the past 5,000 years was created for just these purposes. lt seems ab-
surd to stop now.


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