Image and Process

[cliveh]

Do you think image justifies/supports process? Or process justifies/supports image? I would say the former.

 

[Wayne]

I don't even know what you mean. Must be one of those intellekshooall questions.

If you're asking "does process matter" the answer is yes, in photography as in many other things process matters from start to finish. But I don't think that's the question.

 

[dpurdy]

You first need an image to justify a process. Which is to say that when looking through the work I have done I decide whether or not to spend the time and materials necessary to make an enlarged negative and then a platinum print. Then the process needs to support the image. Which is to say that some images work well with one process but not another. I found that to be very true when I switched from always printing my work in silver gelatin to always printing my work in platinum/palladium. It changed the way I see and visualize before making an image. Platinum prints have a unique look that gets ingrained in your thinking and visualizing. So, with that said, you need to find images that justify the process and a process that supports the image.

 

[OptiKen]

I think the answer lies in what the artist is trying to achieve.
An example of a Tree done as a Platinum Print or a Platinum Print of a Tree.
I believe that the approach will differ depending upon what you are trying to emphasize.
It is not always about the picture.

 

[pdeeh]

Do eggs justify omelettes? Or do omelettes justify eggs?

 

[MattKing]

As a print is an object in itself, sometimes the process can be as or more important than the subject.
Edward Weston's peppers aren't of value because of what was photographed (mostly). They are of value because of how they become beautiful and interesting two dimensional representations of what was photographed.
Any print that is abstract in nature is similar.
And decisions about process are at least as important as decisions about subject when one has an end result in mind.

 

[cliveh]

Do eggs justify omelettes? Or do omelettes justify eggs?

Omelettes justify eggs.

 

[LAG]

Do you think image justifies/supports process? Or process justifies/supports image? I would say the former.

Both

 

[removed account4]

hi clive,
i tihnk the print justifies the print, because to me at least whatever way the person took to make the print
was just a road taken. even work done with wild processes, negatives made in dangerous circumstances or
the most mundane of photographic of images (some may call trite "snapshots" ) i don't think a process will change much
except to the maker. in the end, unless the person is being hired to sell their work ( through an ad or gallery " agency" )
for the most part photography fallis into the " art for arts sake " otherwise - it is the buyer ( or in the case of the gallery, the seller )
who may have final say and say " the image of the swingset made with a flipped hawkeye, processed in dog's urine fixed in salt water from the
galapagos islands, printed on hand made mulberry paper, on chloride emulsion made from tears collected from the last election cycle,
toned in uranium found on the dark web muled from a rogue nation and painted with alleged billy bob_angolina's blood from viles purchased
from an itinerant ebay account from eastern Europe looked better as a machine print"

but omlettes are pretty good too

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