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Further technicalities... |
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Wednesday, 26 January 2005 |
Here is a tough one for me to decide : I'm not sure if I like Linda Broadfoot's work... Who's Linda Broadfoot ? She's a photographer, using the Polaroid 20x24 system (I know, it's turning into an obsession, this Polaroid 20x24 thing, I guess I'll be cured when i get one for myself...:p).
 She is using this big huge camera, like the one you see here (this particular one is the camera from the polaroid studio in california, at Polaroid 20x24 Studio West, operated by Tracy Storer.) to take pictures of insects. So the images she produces are 20 times life-size images of beautiful insects from around the world, with exquisite details, and furthermore she does them in image transfers, and not straight polaroid prints.
Now, I'm a biologist, so I appreciate the simple documentary nature of her work. I am a book lover so I appreciate the look of her images which look somehow like the color plates from a 19th century biology book. I am a photographer, so I appreciate the technical difficulty in creating images which such magnification. I am a polaroid user myself (only 4x5 for now), so I appreciate the difficulties of the technique she chose. Her images, in short, are stunning, and they tug at various chords in my own experience, so I happen to like them. I think...
(Image by Linda Broadfoot)
Or do I ? Her use of Polaroid transfer seems to be almost an artifice, something she wouldn't need to produce such finely detailed images. Why not use straight 8x10 color transparencies, which would produce higher resolution images than the polaroid, at a lower cost... Would her images be as interesting if there wasn't the element of technical prowess linked to the polaroid 20x24 ? I would probably like her images as much on the biology and photograpy level just as much, but would her work be recognized as art ? Would she be represented by one of the most prestigious Galleries in the world , The Weston Gallery in New York ?
Does it matter why I like her work, as long as I like it ? Can photography be interesting as a purely technical medium ? I'd like to have your comments on this question... |
