Photographs can inspire. For this reason alone, they are worth viewing. However photographs can also inform. When photographs both inspire and inform, this seems to me a compelling reason to view photography. It becomes significant and valuable. I believe in the need to strive for a broad understanding of complex issues. Although most forums for viewing photography are necessarily restricted in scope, photographs do have the potential to inspire compassion. This crucial affectation may in turn encourage learning and greater understanding. Through understanding ignorance and injustice might be combated.
Visually, I am interested in what is momentary and fleeting. I am constantly chasing gesture and physical exchange, and trying to find ways to chronicle the day-to-day interactions between people that enable a society to function. I am trying to learn how to use photography to record significant themes by looking at seemingly insignificant actions. I am excited by photographs, and endlessly interested in my own work, despite repeated failures. Over and over I will try something, and fail, creating ‘sketches’, ideas that are works in progress. Occasionally, eventually, these ideas work, and come out as photographs that have some sophistication and are able to communicate something beyond the superficial. It is exciting.
photograph by Breanna Ridsdell