Recently, I've been adding some new images to my flickrstream. I say images, 'cause ever since I started uploading to flickr, I've included a whole lot of stuff that, strictly speaking, doesn't fall into the category of "photography". I'm talking about the concept of "found imagery". Say what? "Found imagery" - English, motherfucker, do you speak it? Anyway..."found imagery" can mean many things; besides the obvious use of found images in my montages, I've also been distorting existing photos in a number of ways, and making scans of "found objects" (crap off the streets). Also, since buying a new camera, I’ve been taking my fetish in new directions; taking pictures of posters and graffiti, of found objects and images laid out in inarresting combinations; hell, I've even had a go at that old trick of photographing my TV screen!
Not that this "found imagery" concept is anything new to me; for years now, I've been screwing around with found footage - that is, reels of film rescued from trash barrels, which I then chop up into four-frame segments, and stick back together with sellotape, this time in a completely new order. (My fave practitioners in this area include Joseph Cornell, Bruce Conner, and best of all, Luther Price, whose short film, "Sodom" I recommend to anyone interested in film editing as a technique.)
Why such a love of found objects/footage/imagery though, I hear you ask? (Alright, alright; hear myself ask.) Well, to begin with, I've always been inarrested in collage, montage, composite images - whatever you want to call it; and few things give me as much pleasure as coming across a new bit of imagery I can make use of. Secondly, I've always been extremely keen on what, for want of a better word, I might call the mechanics of imagery; the means by which imagery, photographic and non-photographic is produced, and the ways in which it is joined with other imagery to make a coherent (or in my case, incoherent) whole. This inarrest applies at least as much to film as it does to photography; hence, my cut-ups of found footage include foot after foot of leader, countdowns, captions and titles; not to mention footage that's been painted, engraved and otherwise mutilated; and every fragment of film I join together with a thick layer of sellotape, the edges of which flash across the screen as a precursor to every cut. Similarly, my photomontage and collage stuff includes cuts, ragged tears, and of course, the collage artist's best friend - sellotape - all this applied to a combination of newsprint, imagery and colour charts. Most of all, it's always given me the greatest pleasure to take material that's supposedly outlived its use, and turn it into something new and (to me, at least) worthwhile. This satisfaction is partly due to the knowledge that I'm making something out of nothing; and in this respect, I'm reminded of the words of Saint Francis; 'our aesthetic comes from Sister Poverty'. As well as this, there's the satisfaction of making something new out of stuff that would otherwise have just been thrown away. ('Waste not, want not' - I’m always good for a kidney stone of wisdom!) In fact, now I come to think of it, it seems as if I've created a superior form of recycling; recycling not just on a material level, but also an aesthetic one. After all, what better than to take a load of tacky, mass-produced bullshit, and transform it into a brilliant work of art? Yeah, right...
Not that this "found imagery" concept is anything new to me; for years now, I've been screwing around with found footage - that is, reels of film rescued from trash barrels, which I then chop up into four-frame segments, and stick back together with sellotape, this time in a completely new order. (My fave practitioners in this area include Joseph Cornell, Bruce Conner, and best of all, Luther Price, whose short film, "Sodom" I recommend to anyone interested in film editing as a technique.)
Why such a love of found objects/footage/imagery though, I hear you ask? (Alright, alright; hear myself ask.) Well, to begin with, I've always been inarrested in collage, montage, composite images - whatever you want to call it; and few things give me as much pleasure as coming across a new bit of imagery I can make use of. Secondly, I've always been extremely keen on what, for want of a better word, I might call the mechanics of imagery; the means by which imagery, photographic and non-photographic is produced, and the ways in which it is joined with other imagery to make a coherent (or in my case, incoherent) whole. This inarrest applies at least as much to film as it does to photography; hence, my cut-ups of found footage include foot after foot of leader, countdowns, captions and titles; not to mention footage that's been painted, engraved and otherwise mutilated; and every fragment of film I join together with a thick layer of sellotape, the edges of which flash across the screen as a precursor to every cut. Similarly, my photomontage and collage stuff includes cuts, ragged tears, and of course, the collage artist's best friend - sellotape - all this applied to a combination of newsprint, imagery and colour charts. Most of all, it's always given me the greatest pleasure to take material that's supposedly outlived its use, and turn it into something new and (to me, at least) worthwhile. This satisfaction is partly due to the knowledge that I'm making something out of nothing; and in this respect, I'm reminded of the words of Saint Francis; 'our aesthetic comes from Sister Poverty'. As well as this, there's the satisfaction of making something new out of stuff that would otherwise have just been thrown away. ('Waste not, want not' - I’m always good for a kidney stone of wisdom!) In fact, now I come to think of it, it seems as if I've created a superior form of recycling; recycling not just on a material level, but also an aesthetic one. After all, what better than to take a load of tacky, mass-produced bullshit, and transform it into a brilliant work of art? Yeah, right...
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