“Photography As ART” script shows how James creates his art using only light, camera, and optics, in addition to considerable logistical planning, technical experimentation, patience and dedication.
NARRATOR:
Taking pause during this interval let me read a statement by James on his use of the nude: “My artwork always includes a female muse, always in the nude, as only humans can be. The human form is the ultimate perfection of creation. From the outset, I’m not photographing fashion statements or period pieces. My artwork can’t be obstructed or dated through garments, or even by tattoos. Leonardo da Vince followed Alberti’s instructions written in his book On Painting, to always begin painting human subjects’ nude. I concur and simply have my Muses that way.
Among the oldest archeological art finds, dated carved 26,000 years ago, is a nude figure. It is said the depiction of the nude taps the veins of sin and sexuality, cultural identity, aesthetic pleasure, and the tenet of beauty. Could I ask for more!
The obstacle for acceptance of the nude as photographic art is due to the accuracy and specificity of this medium. In other words, the camera is often branded as lacking arts most essential devices, the ability to idealize and the artist’s hand. In reality that could only be attributed to the users behind the camera, or the medium’s critics who might lack that ability. My artwork does idealize the human form, remaining honest to the subject, our motives and desires. My nudes are not obscured from the camera’s realistic depiction, other than by having them as part of a larger narrative, a myth, a play on history, or form of expression. In addition, an important aspect of my artwork is mixing the artistic endeavor, its visual literacy, in with the “hand of the artist” by exploring the other possibilities of this medium, photography; it is how we make ‘photographic as art’ creatively.”
THE END of Scene twelve
