When Can We Say “Goodby” to Deadpan Photography?
Here is a definition I found on Yahoo Answers today.
Deadpan refers to a plain lack of expression – applied to the sitter / subject
Wow, doesn’t that say it all. I just received my new issue of The New Yorker, and Jeff Minton has two pictures that really say it all. Nothing. Am I being too harsh? I am not so sure. Nothing against his success in the industry, its more the entire genre that I have issues with.
I was raised in a different time, an era when I was introduced to beauty; paintings, music, and photography that moved me emotionally. I have always had such a low tolerance to art that subscribes to theories and preconceived concepts. Throughout my entire life I have been emotionally moved by so little. Perhaps that is why I spend all of my time trying to create something that works for me. I love exploring with colors, shapes, balance, and depth. I have always had a connection to the Abstract Expressionists who lived in New York during the 40′s creating the New York School. My photographic mentor, who I apprenticed with before starting my first photographic career with National Geographic, was Jules Alexander. His studio was on East 69th Street, in the former Mark Rothko studio. I was very much aware of this connection. It meant a tremendous amount to me.
“Silence is so accurate,” Rothko would say, fearing that words would only paralyze the viewer’s mind and imagination. In their manifesto in the New York Times Rothko and Gottlieb had written: “We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”
Let me know if I am the only person in the world that wuold like to say “Goodby” to this photographic fad. Let’s bring back emotion to the world of photography.