| I’ve always seen photography as being inherently magical. Photography by its very nature is alchemical, utilizing the ability to transform silver into visible images. Therefore I have chosen to utilize the medium appropriately. Light sensitive film and papers are receptive vehicles, and I attempt to take advantage of this both literally and figuratively. |  |
Rik Garrett is a Chicago based artist represented by Art@Large in New York and MoPIA in Zurich, where he will be having a solo exhibition in November.
Rik Garrett, Waiting on November (#3), 2007. Analog silver print (limited edition of 8), 16 x 20 in. Courtesy of the artist.
I’ve always seen photography as being inherently magical. Photography by its very nature is alchemical, utilizing the ability to transform silver into visible images. Therefore I have chosen to utilize the medium appropriately. Light sensitive film and papers are receptive vehicles, and I attempt to take advantage of this both literally and figuratively.
I have strived to take photographs that are about people more than they are photographs of people. While the distinction may seem like a small one, I believe it to be very relevant. Rather than use the medium of photography to capture a moment or preserve what might be considered an accurate likeness of someone, I have chosen to attempt to illustrate something a bit less tangible.
My personal philosophy is that a photograph should reflect the personality of the person being photographed. For this reason I’ve found it to be best to photograph people I know well. It was interesting to find out a few years ago that my work had been labeled erotic. While this isn’t something that I object to, I don’t think that is the best way to describe my photographs. I’ve wondered if people are responding to an actual undertone of eroticism, or just picking up on a certain air of “intimacy” (a loaded word itself)—something a bit more personal than they might be accustomed to seeing.
Being a very scientific medium, photography tends to be valued for its reliability. I, myself, am fascinated with the way that the materials lend themselves to unexpected and serendipitous results—provided, of course, that the person using them is open to it. I like the idea of introducing an element of unpredictability into an otherwise predictable process, adding a certain amount of chance to the procedure—something that photography, in general, often lacks.
I have worked to balance both the spontaneous and the deliberate in my work. I believe in allowing projects to progress organically, taking on a life of their own. This leads me to create a document of something that I see as being more metaphorical than literal—an image that didn’t exist before, something intangible that would have otherwise remained unseen.
