One Hit Wonders
Magical Mystery Tour - By Mike Gannaway
This might show my age, but there used to be a debate between which mattered more, the greatest single or the best album. In today’s fight for attention, sixty second soundbite or highlight reel, it feels like the single has won. But has it? If you love the artist, which do you prefer?
“Dorothea Lange believed that photographers who drift around without a point of departure will never get anything good.”
As with music, there is still a place for albums, projects and series. These longer forms of artistic projects allow both the creator and the consumer to go on a journey. To explore at a deeper level, and descend beneath the obvious. They give us license to go beyond.
For the past couple of years, I have been trying to push myself to work in projects. To develop ideas, to give myself as Ralph Gibson recounts in his story, a point of departure. For those who don’t know the story Ralph Gibson, an American art photographer, was told by Dorothea Lange, "I see your problem here Ralph, you have no point of departure". Lange said this after Gibson showed her one of his pictures while working for her. Lange explained that having a point of departure is important because it's similar to having a fixed destination when buying toothpaste, which provides motivation. She believed that photographers who drift around without a point of departure will never get anything good.
Last year I did the Intermediate Photography Course at UCol to help me change direction and see photography from a slightly different perspective. To believe in myself more, and quieting those voices in my head that say art is for artists, to see where it could take me.
The image above is from a project I have been working on which I have loosely called the Surreal World of Guitars. A fun little series which plays with those magic words “What if?” What if a designer reimagined the classic shapes and forms of guitars and used those concepts in the designs of houses for example. This project was inspired by Storm Thorgerson and other surrealists who dared to dream outside the square and show us a dream world in which fantasy and reality collide.
So why this post, you might ask? Is it an introduction to this project? Well kind of, but actually it’s more about what projects can do for you. Because the image above I entered into a competition, specifically the 2024 National Triptych Salon. Yesterday I got the results back and it placed which is awesome. Did it win anything, no, it got an acceptance in fact. Some people might take that as you need to do better, and a year ago I would have too. But as we grow, we get to see things from other perspectives.
Of course everyone wants to win, but that is impossible. The results are based on subjective criteria not objective. But if art is about expressing your feelings so that others can express theirs vicariously through your work, then appearing in the catalogue or the exhibition is the important bit. Which one the judge liked more or less determines the "winner" but the people viewing the exhibition can have their own opinion, and experience.
“ if art is about expressing your feelings so that others can express theirs vicariously through your work, then appearing in the catalogue or the exhibition is the important bit.”
I love projects now and will continue to explore them. I love what they can do and how they can better express your thoughts. I am still in awe of other peoples projects, the books and exhibitions that have paved the way for art through history. I think if you are honest, is your favorite music album one of the many greatest hits collections that have come and gone? Those projects that try to make new money from old hits. Or is it an original album that expresses an idea? A band in its prime, reaching out to the world in the hope that others will see what they love, and love it to?
My 2024 National Triptych Salon entries