An Experimental progression.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then why has this page got so much text?

This gallery looks at some of the images that are not dealt with in the main text of Chapter One. The aim here is to look at the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of image construction and then begin to focus in on how this might affect the work I produce in the future.

Video or cine is fun but at the end of the day, each image is too fleeting and the viewer has no freedom to dwell on any one aspect of the story. Bridging that gap in a single, still, image is a fascinating idea.

By tracing both time and space in a single image, it is possible to weave quite intricate tales---

--- leaving a lot more flexibility for the imaginative viewer - rather like the difference between a film and a book.

To help this process, some ‘layers’ of the image could be made visually incongruous so that they stand out. The possibilities are endless, so the difficulty will be to make each element count. As with any story telling, less can mean more.

It can be very easy to get carried away, filling the image with colour and detail and hiding the interesting features. The end result neither tells much of a story nor is pleasing to the eye.

A more subtle construction builds the tale gradually the longer the curious viewer stays --- the longer the viewer stays, the more intricate the tale that is woven.

So how else can
the story be extended
without compromising
the individual image?---

--- one way would be to introduce a ‘layer’ of fantasy, a sort of picture within a picture - the distinction between the two elements being as obvious as a picture of a picture on a wall.

--- another
would be to display related
images adjacent to one another.
Even though the perspective is not consistent between the two images on the right, do you feel the pull between them? Each image is extended by the other’s presence but it’s own composition
remains intact.

--- another would be to introduce optical illusion.

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To construct an image that tells a story, as with any good book, the ‘reader’ should not be expected to make very large leaps of imagination otherwise the story becomes their own, not the artist’s. The clues should all be there to fill in the gaps.

The problem is, knowing only my own reality, my own truths, my own beliefs! Is it worth compromising my own pleasure in the art to allow for those whose minds work differently to mine? Should I just hope that there are enough people out there who ‘get it’, to make the effort of ‘communicating’ worthwhile? Is there any need at all to be precious about getting a message or a story across? If the viewer gets pleasure, is it important that they understand my reality? Fantasy is a personal refuge from all the unpleasantness in the real world today but then, what is reality anyway?

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away."
-- Philip K. Dick

*

Reality is often stranger than fiction ---

--- and not only stranger than we suppose but stranger than we can suppose!

*

CONCLUSION - I should give my viewers credit for being intelligent enough to take the images for what they are - the view from MY side of the fence. Let them take whatever enjoyment they may from my work.
OBSERVATION - It would be nice to only produce images that speak for themselves but a few well chosen words can make a lot of difference!

*

Well! That makes everything a lot clearer doesn’t it? (NOT).
-- You could now return to the main text in CHAPTER ONE.
or go on through GALLERY FOUR .