Personal
Statement of Artistic Philosophy
by: Michael McClellan
Not all art requires a subject. Some artworks are studies in light,
form, shape, and color and are not dependent on a particular subject for their success.
Others are tied to their subjects and reflect or interpret those subjects literally or
subjectively. For this category of art, the choice of subject is the most important
decision the artist can make. How that subject is handled is the essence of the artistic
process and determines the final artistic product.
An artist can record or interpret that subject best to which he or she responds
emotionally. It must be a subject about which the photographer cares, a subject which has
"inner meaning" for the photographer. If the subject does not interest the
artist, or evoke an emotional or intellectual response, he will be unable to produce a
work that can communicate anything beyond a pure record of that subject to the viewer.
Thus, for the artist producing work in which the subject plays a role, the choice of
subject is critical to the production of emotive work. In other words, the artist MUST
choose a subject about which he cares – or at least responds to in a significant
manner.
Thus I photograph subjects to which I can relate on both the intellectual and spiritual
levels. My work seeks to capture, to paraphrase Minor White, "the spirit of place and
person." I do not photograph subjects toward which I have negative feelings nor do I
present views or interpretations of my subjects which are denigrating or in any way
insulting. I see no point in making images which portray conflict or hostility, nor do I
wish to communicate in any way my own negative reactions or feelings toward a subject.
There are more than enough such images in the world already. Rather, it is my desire that
my images communicate peace, harmony, striving for perfection -- the "inner
light" of subjects that are close to God, whether through searching for God (through
religion) or by having been created close to God (through nature). It is that "spirit
of place and person" that I seek to capture in my photographs.
Since first discovering photography as an expressive medium, I have found the subjects of
religion and nature to be the dominant themes with which I prefer to work. Under the
rubric of these two larger themes, I am able to do landscapes, portraits, architectural
studies, and documentary work. My work, however, has come to be concentrated in recent
years on the monastic life as it is practiced in the churches of the "Christian
East." This subject will be later expanded to include other Christian traditions and
then non-Christian traditions, but for now I am concentrating only on the Churches of
Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East. As subject matter, monasticism is a way
of life to which I respond on a very personal level, a way of life for which I have great
admiration. Through the medium of photography, I want to share my understanding and
appreciation of this way of life and my admiration for those men and women who have
elected to adopt it.
At the same time, however, this body of work stands as a record – a documentary
record – of the state of eastern Christian monasticism at the end of almost 1700
years of existence. As a record, photography is unsurpassed as a means of preserving the
record of a subject at a given point in time – in this case, the end of the second
millennium. My photographic record is sharp, clear, free of manipulation, and seeks to
place both the monks and their monasteries in the proper spiritual and environmental
contexts.
Not all my work, of course, is concentrated on this one theme. Abstracts, portraits,
landscapes, and other images that are related to the subject of monasticism are also
present in my work, but it is still that "spirit of person and place" which I
try to capture in each image. Traditional cultures, in which people have developed a
certain harmony between their social life and their environment, are also a favorite
subject as I believe there is more than one "right way" for people to live in
this world.
I find the medium of black-and-white photography to be most
suitable for the vision I wish to communicate. Photography itself encourages a realistic
view of the world around us, while the black-and-white approach keeps that record from
being too literal, too common, too "pretty." While I can and sometimes do use
color in my photographic work, it is generally limited to abstractions and compositions in
which the main subject is color itself, rather than color being an aspect of the subject.
For my subject matter, I find that black-and-white best portrays the spiritual aspects of
the subject because it is less literal than color and allows the photographer more freedom
to interpret without becoming excessively "unrealistic." In those photos I have
chosen to manipulate, it is through the introduction of non-realistic color by the use of
special papers and toning or by hand-coloring of black-and-white images.
The spiritual life typically speaks to us through the written and spoken words of those
who follow it. I believe, though, that the spiritual life also speaks to us through the
outward expressions and actions of its adherents and through the art, architecture, and
the very environments of the places where that life is lived. Thus, a photographic record
of this life can convey aspects of spirituality that are not possible through the written
and spoken word – a "third dimension" of that life, if you will.
Occasionally, I work in large format (both 4" x 5" and 8" x 10") but
the vast majority of my work is done with 35mm. In this format, I use Leica cameras,
although for the occasional panorama photo, I use the Russian Horizon camera which I have
found to be absolutely superb. With this one exception, I use only German lenses (Leitz
and Schneider) due to their exceptional contrast and edge resolution which sets them apart
from Japanese manufacturers.
© Michael McClellan, 2002
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