I have been a photographer all my life, but do not call myself a photographer, which simply designates a profession, and the term does not distinguish between earning a living, on the one hand, and being an artist, on the other. The terms ´professional´ and ´artist´, not to be completely negative, however, are not necessarily antithetical.

I do not live by photography nor do I attempt to, I am fortunate I suppose, which means that I operate under no conditioning or constraints, except those that I impose on myself. Sadly, few are the photographers who manage to make a living exclusively at it, few are the galleries who will risk ´non-commercial´ ventures.

Art often has simply become design, decoration, and entertainment, this is not a value judgment, but an objective assessment. It is at one time or another, solely or in various combinations, flashy, fashionable, trendy, kitsch, minimalist, and often shocking. Its effect is immediate, causing impulsive reactions. Nowadays it rarely achieves the level of ´fine art´, as that term has come to mean over the centuries. We only have to pick up two recent books on this situation, After the End of Art, and The End of Art, by two distinguished art critics of our times, to have this spelled out for us.

Photography itself has become big business (principally for the manufacturers of equipment, but not necessarily for the artists), a common hobby, massively practiced, fired by constant technical innovation and technique, mostly unnecessary, and the artist often becomes easily indistinguishable among the clever amateurs and opportunist professionals.

The baby has been thrown out with the bathwater (maybe this is a value judgment), to state it metaphorically. Considerations that were associated with the practices of the ´old masters`, and other concepts, practices and techniques that have marked the history of art, have all been jettisoned and replaced with viscerally immediate art, and technique that produce art that may have no intrinsic artistic value tomorrow.

I do not claim, however, that my photography has achieved a fine art level. I can state, however, that it does not simply attempt to straddle the space between consecrated tradition and new approaches and tendencies, but it certainly intentionally does this in part. It would be simplistic to say in addition that, for example, I take classical ideas of proportions, perspective and even subject matter, and submit them to a new treatment, but in part it would be true. In my opinion all lasting and meaningful art has roots or influences from the past, immediate or distant, which it attempts to fit in to the current ethos, opening new ways of seeing and understanding.

Having said that, photographs normally should not require explanations or justifications, including the ones in this site. Occasionally, however, some background information will help the viewer to comprehend the general approach, even the philosophy behind them that led to their conception. But generally speaking the written or spoken introductions to a collection or selection should be held to a minimum of words. Looking at photographs today, and art in general, has become too ´wordy´.

A few final words, however. I do not believe that there is any such thing as ´photographic realism´, as most photographs capture and reveal what perhaps was not detected even with the ´naked eye´ at the moment of exposure, and certainly was never originally seen as presented in the final print.

- J. Howard Wolf - Algarve, Portugal

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