Mundane Subjects

Are there really mundane subjects in photographs? To be mundane or not to be mundane is really relative to the artist's life experience. I think what allows certain artists to bring a mundane subject to life is of course, how he or she looks at it, not the object itself. Taking past life experience and applying it to the subject in a personal way is what defines how the subject will come alive. 

I mean, if you take the entire human race as a whole, with all of its cumulative perspectives and points of view, I think it might be safe to say that there are NO mundane subjects at all.  Anywhere.

Which brings up another thought. Guys like Ansel are pretty cool, because they so perfectly bring their vision to us and make us see things in new and amazing ways. But I think there's a negative side to these great artists also: They tend to force us to believe that their vision is the ultimate, the best way, the only way. And some of us run in circles, trying to see if WE can do what they did, rather than acting on our own unique visions. Well yeah, it's a difficult thing to do, to create a new "universal" vision. But who says it has to be universal? I think there are many potential artists out there who will never try at all because they're so worried that they'll never be able to compete with the big guys, and that's really a sad thing. 

JT

Galleries

It's true that I am indeed interested in experimenting with the gallery thing a little, just to see what it's like. It seems like a real challenge to get your work in some of those "big" galleries. On the other hand, that's all very insignificant to the real reason I do photography in the first place, that is to get out to the desert (or where ever) and capture the images themselves.

When I get out there, there's motion, danger, heat, excitement. But in a gallery, what do you have? A nice air-conditioned room with white walls and images hung perfectly in a row. Such a COMPLETE contrast to the atmosphere of the original act of obtaining the images. My idea of a gallery show is to hang the images on the outside of my jeep, drive at least 100 MPH, and require the visitors to drive along side me to see the images. Then they would better understand my mindset.

Maybe that would increase sales a little too.

JT