Specifically, the Medium

Aperture & Distortion by Grant Gomm

In Ian Rhuter’s video Silver & Light, Ian examines the process of wet-plate photography by converting an old delivery van into one large camera.  By covering a sheet of metal with chemicals, then exposing them through a giant lens, Ian creates beautiful images.  He says,  “The reality of the situation is that at this point it costs me five hundred dollars to take a single photo. When I shot my first wet plate image, and to hold something tangible that’s not a negative, it’s not a print.  And it was  so beautiful in my hands. It’s like I create this with silver and light.”  Converting a van into a camera, and spending $500.00 on each picture is not an efficient way to capture an image.  But there is something more to what he is doing.  His process, as he mentions, is really hands on – it’s “tangible.”  But it’s also not just about the process either.  Perhaps there is something intangible we create within us when we examine the medium itself that we choose to express ourselves and our art.

Scott McCloud’s work, Understanding Comics takes an interesting approach at examining comics by creating a comic about, well, comics. His piece is about defining what a comic is.  He says, “If people failed to understand comics, it was because they defined what comics could be too narrowly!”  He then compares comics to such things as the Bayeux Tapestry, pre-columbian art, and Egyptian hieroglyphics.  What better way to discuss a medium than through the medium itself?

In my piece, I examine photography and digital manipulation through photography and digital manipulation.  Originally I started out with an idea inspired by Andy Warhol’s Eight Elvises, and Ian Rhuter’s wet plate photography, and decided to make an image of a series of cameras each shot at a different aperture, lined up next to each other similar to Warhol’s piece.  An old Nikon 35mm film camera was cast as my subject, according to plan.  I took a series of locked-down pictures from a tripod mounted DSLR of the old Nikon in whole stops from f/2 through f/22 (f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22).  Those familiar with photography will understand that by also decreasing the shutter speed in whole stops, I was able to maintain equivalent exposure.  Therefore, the only differences between each picture is the depth of field.  But when it came time to manipulate the images in Photoshop, my original idea went out the window.  I wanted to say more about photography than just examine the aperture.  So I decided to make a picture with many ways to look at photography.  

In my finished work above, the cameras are positioned to create a chase scene that is reminiscent of a Star Wars battle of x-wing fighters being chased by ti-fighters.  Each camera image is placed in a layering manner from left to right, and front to back, as well as large to small.  On the right side of the image, the larger cameras represent a larger aperture and more light, more exposure.  The cameras on the left represent a smaller aperture, accounting for their size, and less light, or a darker exposure.  In the analogy of the Star Wars chase scene, they can be recognized as being on the “dark side”.  

Further, the lenses and cameras are distorted. Sometimes we like to say “the camera doesn’t lie,” but the reality is that often the lens of a camera can in fact distort the truth.  And then finally, there’s the chase.  It seems that each photographer is chasing the next, fighting for “the money shot.”

"The Plum Jar" by Grant Gomm and Camden Argyle

Click here to view the script.

Artist Statement

Hollywood has attempted to tell the stories of World War II nearly since the end of the war.  Movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and Series like Band of Brothers all tell the stories from the perspective of the soldiers who fought in the war.  

Audie Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier during the war, and even starred in the movie To Hell and Back where he played the role of himself, telling his story while he fought in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.  In 1945, in what is now famously known as the Colmar Pocket in Eastern France, Murphy held off an entire company of German soldiers by himself for over an hour.  He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this achievement.  

But what about the average citizen that was liberated by the allied armies portrayed in these films?  What is their story?  What was their experience having to endure German occupation for nearly six years?  One moment they are under the control of the Nazi German government, then the bombs fall and bullets fly.  Sometimes the fighting lasted for many days as was the case during the battle of Jebsheim, which was a part of the Colmar Pocket - the same offensive fought in by Audie Murphy. Today, the French Foreign Legion tells the story from their perspective on their official website, http://www.legionetrangere.fr (be sure to click the British flag in the upper right corner for the English version).

But again, what about the citizens?  Do they not have stories to tell?  Not far from Jebsheim, and within a few short minutes from the German border is the village of Durrenentzen.  Lucy Eischer, who had been a long time resident of the village told a story that she experienced shortly after the French and American forces pushed the Germans out.  Lucy’s story is the framework for The Plum Jar.

From the outset, we wanted to preserve historical integrity as much as possible.  Emails were sent reaching out to Lucy through her family in Durrenentzen.  Even still, not all of the details could be filled in, so some things were fictionalized to help the flow of the story.  As we fleshed out the missing parts, we found ourselves devising unique ways to recreate the history, or at least to tell the story as we imagined it.  

One such exchange was when a fictionalized object, a jar of pickles we said was found by the story’s narrator, Lucy, was turned in to a symbol, then becoming a metaphor ultimately underlining the theme of the story.  The idea was that the jar of pickles represent  goodwill, charity, and perhaps even forgiveness that was extended by the villagers to starving, young soldiers on their escape back to Germany.  When one of the soldiers is shot and killed, the jar fell, shattering on the ground, symbolizing that peace was not to be had in spite of best efforts.

As we discussed this metaphor, we felt that pickles were not the right item.  They are tart, sometimes a little bitter.  We decided to fill the jar with something sweet – the local plums known as "quetsches".  Not only did that satisfy the demands of historic plausibility, but we felt the sweetness of candied plums better represented the meaning of the metaphor.  This metaphor then became the title of the script, alluding to the meaning of the The Plum Jar.

Albert Gantz, and his "papers" during the Nazi occupation of Alsace.

Nice, Ice baby!

We are often encouraged to look a little less at the destination and 'enjoy the journey.' But how often do we actually do it? The point of the process piece is to stop for a minute to see beyond simply the product. In this creation, the means carry far more meaning than the end, and in many ways supersede its value. The short film Five, for example, is more concerned with showing the commonality of children preparing for religious initiation rather than the initiations themselves. For our creative work, we wanted to capture the experience of our first time ice climbing. It's always a bit of a sketchy ordeal, and most climbers have sort of “figured it out” with their buddies. Our process of capturing the experience in audio followed on those same lines. We didn't give too much forethought to what our finished product would be—we just went up and tried to figure it out as we went. And we don't think we're alone. The unique creative process for each individual is, in some ways, common. We can appreciate, for example, a child's drawing; for though it may lack understanding, it conveys pure ideas and demonstrates the child's creative process. We can see a similar creativity in the body of Jackson Pollock's artwork. He is described as an action painter, wherein the process of the painting takes precedent over form and function. It's expressionism, not of ideas, but of emotion and movement. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.” —Pollock In documenting our experience with ice climbing, it was interesting to realize that we spent very little time actually climbing ice. The bulk of our time was spent hiking, setting up the equipment, and learning what to do. The enjoyments did not come so much from completing the climb. They came from the camaraderie of being with cool people and enjoying the beauties of the ice fall and inclement weather. We had hoped to include the process of actually recording the event, but due to constrictions we were unable to. Thus the narrative of the piece really evolved on its own. Unlike Pollock, we didn't have the luxury of limitlessness on our side, so it was all we could do to express something coherent. Our process is about learning to ice climb, but the real process that occurred was in putting the composition together. Listen closely and realize that this piece is made up of many layers, agonizingly stitched together to express in two minutes the events of an entire day.