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"I
was born in 1946, the first year after World War II. My parents just
survived hardships of evacuation and returned back home to Riga, now
under Soviet occupation. I grew up among the Russian speaking
population of Latvia, and Russian culture become my root culture. I
graduated from the technical college as aviation engineer but never
worked as such; instead I joined Riga Motion Studios as a designer
of equipment for special effects. I was in my early twenties and
mostly ignorant about art. At this time social realism was an
official culture of the country and I did not care about it too
much. Information about modern western art was hardly available and
my knowledge of it was highly limited. I started to photograph when
I was nineteen, driven by desire to create my own personal style and
vision. I was involved in portraiture and did some documentary
shots, but soon realized the results did not satisfy me.
I put my
camera aside and concentrated on reading (Dostoevsky, Bulgakov) and
cinematography (Tarkovsky, Parajanov). I was constantly looking for
the way to express my personal feelings and thoughts using
photography. One year later it came to me clear and simple. I
decided to photograph Concepts.
In 1972 I
created my first, and most important image —
Confession. I instantly recognized the potential possibilities of
conceptual approach, and the knowledge acquired from this image
become a backbone of the work I produced over the next twenty five
years.
In 1974,
after years of disgust with communist authorities, I left my country
and arrived in USA.
Conventional versus Conceptual.
Do I point my camera outwards to the existing world, or turn it
inward towards my soul? Am I taking photographs of existing reality,
or creating my own world, so real but non-existent?
Results from
these two opposite approaches are notably different and, in my
opinion, conceptual photography is a higher form of artistic
expression that places photography on the level of painting, poetry,
music and sculpture. It employs the special talent of intuitive
vision. By translating the personal concepts into the language of
photography, it reflects the possible answers to major questions of
being: birth, death and life. Creating an idea and transforming it
into reality is an essential process of conceptual photography.
Today's
conventional approach, with a few exceptions, completely dominates
Art Photography. But introduction of digital photography will change
this balance. The ease of producing altered realities will bring a
new wave of talented artists who will use it to express their
special world of visions, with all its meanings, symbols and
mystery.
In a world of
high technology will you still believe in truthfulness of a
photograph? And does it matter?
To me it
matters. In all these years of creating conceptual images, I tried
to make them as realistic as possible. My technical abilities have
improved, allowing me to broaden horizons for my ideas. But this is
not the most important part of the process. The poor concept,
perfectly executed, still makes a poor photograph. Therefore, the
most important ingredient of the powerful image is a concept. The
blend of a talent to create a concept and the skill to deliver it
— those are two major building blocks of creating a convincing
conceptual photograph.
It is not a
new idea to manipulate photographic images. As a matter of fact all
images are manipulated to a certain degree. The real power of
photography emerges when altered reality is presented as existent
and is expected to be perceived as such. An obviously manipulated
image is a trick that shows a lack of understanding of the unique
power of photography — the belief engraved in our subconscious
that what was captured by the camera has to exist. In the best
examples of successfully manipulated images the question "Is it
real?" does not arise.
My first
introduction to digital manipulations showed me how similar analog
and digital techniques are. Each has it's bright and dark spots. At
this moment I don't see any reason to switch to digital. I still
prefer the glowing quality of original print and the laborious
process to achieve it. Yet, I believe that it is only matter of time
before digital approach replaces the analog and conceptual
transcends the conventional. I also want to believe that, many years
from now, artists will continue to develop the language of
photography, understanding and preserving its unique power."
-misha gordin |
