I have another solo photography exhibition opening soon. It will run from Jan 24 - Mar 17, 2014, at the Howard County Community College Art Department Gallery in Columbia, MD. I'm calling it, Signals in the Noise. Below is my "Artist Statement" for the show. These statements can sometimes be perceived as being pretentious and self-important and possibly you will consider this one as an example of such. I won't dispute you on that perception but if you read the statement you'll see that your perception, whatever it is, is an example of what I'm talking about. You've found a personal signal in the text.
In any case, if you're in Columbia, MD, sometime during the dates of the show, stop in and check it out. There is a reception on Thurs Jan 30 from 5 - 7PM. If you are reading this, consider yourself invited. Location details can be found here (or email me with questions):
http://www.howardcc.edu/visitors/artgallery/index.html
Our conscious lives are spent searching for and responding to signals that are embedded within the noise that bombard each of our senses every waking minute.
It has taken me the better part of a long lifetime to arrive at this personal “aha!”, but for me now, that about sums up what it is that human beings do with their lives. Deeper analysis reveals that what constitutes a “signal” is often unique to each individual. Sensory stimulus that resonates with me and thus becomes a signal that rises above the noise I swim through, be it a particular piece of music, a particular image, a particular feel or touch, a particular political or scientific concept, may not resonate with you. We use the metaphor and simile as means of conveying the essence of some signal we perceive to another, in hopes of transferring the resonance. How each of us responds to the signals we get, well, that is life. I should add that I don't see the perception of signals by an individual as necessarily awarding any absolute validity to the signal. I mentioned “scientific concept” as a signal, but some scientific concepts are more valid than others, some are in fact completely bogus but still they resonate with folks. Some signals that resonate with an individual can be detrimental to their well-being, e.g. an excessive fondness for alcohol or living a life on the edge. But enough of this...
Having “Signals in the Noise” as a theme for a photographic exhibition is in a way a cop out. It allows the exhibitor (me in the present case) to hang pretty much anything he or she wants – these are my “signals” after all. What you see displayed here are some of the visual perceptions I have made over the past few years and that somehow resonated with me sufficiently to warrant being photographed. Each of these displayed images was perceived by me, at the time they were captured, as not being noise but rather as saying something to me. My response to these signals, beyond the photograph itself, that is a work in progress.
It is my hope that some of the displayed images resonate with you, the viewer. I hope you don't find all of them to be noise....not that there's anything wrong with that.
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
– Anais Nin