A while back I was interviewed by a group from ASMP that was trying to ascertain where photography was going. In the course of thinking about this question I came to the notion that, whereas photography has always been a relatively discrete part of communications, it now seems that it and other disciplines like design, illustration and video have all become kind of lumped together. And that in order to function in communications one now needs to be able to use all of them, or at least be conversant in them. The same thing applies to fine arts. Perhaps we might say that the real work is done at the level of the experience and is expressed through a variety of media.
It is in response to this thought that David Taylor, my co-reviewer, and I kept coming back to the need for students to be encouraged to work in other areas once they have their feet under them in photography. The obvious collaborations might be between photography and design, architecture, fashion, etc., where photographers capture or extend the efforts of others. But I think it would be at least as important to encourage the unexpected connections and crossovers. I find that that is where my challenges are coming from these days, with current projects with a choreographer, a poet and illustrator, and a film maker all under way. And indeed this kind of cross-current is what led me from theater into photography all those years ago.
One of the most creative minds in photography hits this salient point... what are you learning? What will it DO for you? How can it be made to be relevant in a world where relevance and context seem to change almost daily?
Wonderful read.
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