On March 16th, in Melbourne, I delivered my first TEDx talk at Tedx Cecil Street.
The event theme was Rebels and Renegades, and I was invited to speak primarily as an artist, not as an educator. At first I wasn't really comfortable with calling myself an artist or a rebel, as I've never really thought of myself as either, but as I wrote the talk I started to realize it really wasn't that far from the truth at all.
The Britannica dictionary defines art as "something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings."
While building things out of bricks isn't something that is unique to me, nor is it something I consider myself to excel at (there are some AMAZING builders out there!), I don't think I'm a total slouch either, and many of my photographs require imagination and ingenuity to achieve the results I'm after.
Photographing toys is likewise nothing new, but many toy photographers employ a fair amount of post-processing to interweave the results they're famed for, which is something I prefer to stay away from. More often than not my images are single takes, modified with little more than a bit of colour correction to make the colours more toy-like; lights are actually present, shadows are actually being thrown, reflections are authentic, and practical effects like smoke or haze needed to be coordinated AT THE SAME TIME as the light, the camera, and the living creature. I don't mind admitting that there is a little bit of skill involved.
Photographing animals is also not unique to me. Many people take amazing photographs of critters of all forms, and in most ways a true nature photographer's work will surpass mine. My camera is not a huge elaborate dedicated workhorse, my lights are cheap and my setups are often situated in synthetic environments, my photos will never compete with dedicated macro for capturing tiny hairs on bugs faces, but that's not what I'm after. I often feel bad about the simple fact that I handle the animals I photograph, despite the fact that I go to great pains to make sure that subjects are not unduly stressed or antagonized, however, working empathetically with wild animals can be a very different reward all it's own.
There are even other people photographing wild animals with toys, albeit very few. I have come across a few different works that run in similar veins to my own and there is one very prominent artist working in a way that is strikingly similar to the point that in most ways, I'm comfortable admitting, their images are downright superior.
Superficially then, it would seem that I'm no rebel. I'm just another Joe doing the same old stuff, except...
COMBINING skilled building, challenging one-shot photography, live animals and education? I can't find any evidence of THAT anywhere, and I am PROUD to be a rebel and an artist in that regard. I am making these images
NOT because I want to be considered an artist,
NOT because I want to be famous,
NOT in search of profits.
I am doing this because this world, our world, is in a precipitous place right now, and it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to do whatever we can to inspire, educate, and inform each other so that we can better our shared situation to improve our relationship with our Earth and the lives that share it with us, and I have very little respect for anyone who can do amazing things, and chooses to use that ability for nothing but stuffing their pockets and pushing their social media profiles.
On top of all that, delivering environmental education and inspiring positive change by creating images using the product of one of the largest plastic producers on the planet? I'm willing to call that art.
The talk will be published when TED get around to it, and I can't wait. I'm ready to call myself an artist and a rebel on the world stage!
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