First you study photography, then you practice photography, then you serve photography, and finally one becomes photography.
Interpretation
The quote outlines the progression of becoming a true artist through education, practice, service, and ultimately integration with one's art.
Ralph Gibson's quote reflects on the journey of mastering photography as an art form. It emphasizes that one must first learn the technical aspects of photography, then dedicate time to practice, followed by sharing their knowledge and skill with others, before finally reaching a level where photography becomes an intrinsic part of their identity. This illustrates a deep commitment to the art and shows how personal expression can evolve from discipline to embodiment.
In practice
A photographer might use this quote to inspire students at a workshop about the stages of becoming an artist.
Even though fixed in time, a photograph evokes as much feeling as that which comes from music or dance. Whatever the mode - from the snapshot to the decisive moment to multi-media montage - the intent and purpose of photography is to render in visual terms feelings and experiences that often elude the ability of words to describe. In any case, the eyes have it, and the imagination will always soar farther than was expected.
Visual ideas combined with technology combined with personal interpretation equals photography. Each must hold it's own; if it doesn't, the thing collapses.
Of all the artists who emerged in the '80s, I think perhaps Cindy Sherman is the most important.
She could walk through a lightning storm without being touched; grab a bolt of lightning in the palm of her hand; use the heat of lightning to start the kindling going under her medicine pot. She turned the moon into salve, the stars into swaddling cloth, and healed the wounds of every creature walking up on two or down on four.
I am trying to counter the fixity of architectures, their stolidity, with elements that give an ineffable immaterial quality.
I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients.
The time has come for writers, especially those who are artists, to admit that in this world one cannot make anything out, just as Socrates once admitted it, just as Voltaire admitted it.
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