I guess bigger is better for trees.
Blenheim Palace, England
Large photographs are impersonal. In order to see them, you have to stand far away. It’s as if the photographer doesn’t want you to get close to his image or establish a close relationship with it. It is not an arm’s length relationship. It is a way across the room relationship where the viewer must worship from afar. Whether it’s a deliberate tactic to separate the audience from a photograph or just a reflection of the artist’s ego that demands his work cover as much wall space as possible indicates to me the artist is not really interested in getting close to his audience and connecting with them. “Worship my Art from afar, you are not worthy to occupy the vicinity of my Art. Sniff.”
I am uncomfortable when my art gets too big. I’m pretty sure than stems from making silver gelatin prints in the darkroom. Big prints were expensive because everything needed to be big – negatives, enlargers, enlarging lenses, papers, trays, drying racks, dry mount presses… It was a major investment to jump from 11 x 14 to 16 x 20. And the worst part about it was you didn’t know if your negatives were good until it was too late. We all printed small. 8 x 10 was a standard size, 11 x 14 was a big print. 16 x 20 was for the accomplished artist. If you made prints bigger than 16 x 20, your name was Ansel Adams. I tried the bigger prints and they just didn’t work for me. I could not create the quality I wanted in a larger print, so my work stayed small.
I choose to make small photographs because I want you to be able to hold the picture in your hands and be able to look closely at it. I want you to spend some time looking at details and develop a relationship with the image.
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