The Portrait Painter.

c. David Grim (taken 4/5/08)

It's a bit ironic now when I think about it, that I used to try to shy away from taken photos that could be described as "portraits" and/or "abstracts". I felt the former were generally cliche and obvious, and the latter didn't seem to make much sense in the photographic medium.

Boy, how things have changed. This shot was taken shortly after I bought my current camera. I had struggled with a DSLR for about a year, and was highly dissatisfied with my output. I just wasn't meant to be a very technical photographer, and lugging that thing around in its unwieldy bag filled with equipment was certainly dampening my enthusiasm.

So when I got the new model, I was excited to learn it could do some odd and wonderful things. Plus, I could simply stash it in my pocket and go. It meant that I was a lot more spontaneously playful in my image-making, and as a result I started to see possibilities in themes that I had previously avoided. This is the result of one such session. Obviously I was having a lot of fun that evening.

The Democratization of Photography.

c. David Grim (taken 4/12/09)

Part of the difficulty of modern-day art photography is the task of finding interesting or original subject matter. The medium has become democratized by mass production and digital technology. For decades only those with significant resources could afford to make photographic images. That's why you don't find a lot of snapshots from the 19th century. Setting up a scene took a lot of time, and processing was cumbersome.

With the invention of the Polaroid instant camera, everything changed. Any schmuck could pull a camera out and snap a shot, enjoying the results in a very short time. There was no need to fuss with darkrooms or noxious chemicals. Suddenly there were millions of folks worldwide participating in the activity. Naturally a lot of the product was substandard or rushed.

Nowadays one need only pull out their mobile phone or other hand-held device in order to make a quality reproduction of external reality. It's harder to come up with an image that stand out among the multitudes. Several years ago I read that an artist working in the photographic medium generally has about 5-6 years of exhibiting before they run out of steam. It requires constant reinvention to keep things fresh. I'd be lying to you if I didn't identify with this challenge. Hopefully I'll continue to shoot phenomena in a way that fascinates me for a long time. For now that's my only standard.