Stone by Stone
Whether in a gallery, a premium photobook, or an Instagram carousel, a collection of pictures needs to function as a unified whole as well as hold interest on a picture-to-picture basis. It’s a similar complementary relationship between the micro and the macro that makes the art of building dry stone walls interesting to me.
Through a process of careful selection, attuned to the specifics of each stone’s placement and the contours of the wider landscape, it’s possible to build walls that can endure for thousands of years. What’s more, their strength is the product of a keen eye and good taste, not mortar or fastenings. Even though my work would be lucky to survive for decades, let alone millennia, I do want to learn how to assemble projects with the level of coherence, structure, and purpose that this scale of longevity requires.
Dry stone walls aren’t a conglomerate. They aren’t a collection of mismatched detritus lazily glued together to take up space — mere content. Instead, they’re a latticework of affordances — bound together by gravity and close attention to the relationship between each stone and its neighbours. Attention to the form of each stone gives rise to the function of the whole.
During the building process the priority isn’t to choose the weightiest, most impressive stone. The best stone is the one that best complements the stones already laid and will create the best foundation for the stones to follow. The stability of the wall comes from the rightness of its arrangement. Though made of static parts, the wall is a line that travels through the landscape. Likewise, the right pictures in the right order can, and should, provoke emotional movement.
I like that the wall can only exist in relationship with its environment. They’re inseparable. Even two parallel walls, built a few meters apart, will differ as they cleave to the similar but distinct profiles that they traverse. It doesn’t make sense to think about an ideal wall that the others derive from. There can only be individual walls that respond more or less well to the topography that they cut across. There are no Platonic dry stone walls in hyperspace.
In the same way, the best bodies of work arise from the confluence of influence and inspiration. The photographer builds a new structure atop the work of those who came before — moving with or against it as required. The reasons for this are twofold. Without this foundation, you remove the reference points and resonances that orient the audience, offering them a path through unfamiliar territory. (This is often why avant-garde work is impenetrable — the artist chose not to include a door for the audience.) Secondly, novelty is built in opposition to what already exists — not that, but this. When an artistic project is totally unmoored from a tradition, it doesn’t feel new — it’s incomprehensible.
How to proceed?
- Aim for order and coherence at a macro scale and idiosyncrasy and surprise on a picture-by-picture basis.
- Use hero images to provide structure and anchor the series (larger stones) and fill in the gaps with scene setters, mood shots, and quieter transitional pics (smaller stones).
- Cleave to the contours of the canon but build something unique on top of it.
- Let the sequence lead you — what does the next picture need to be, given the picture before it.
- Ask questions with one picture that you answer with another.
May your projects weather the ravages of time and grow mossy with age.
Housekeeping
I aim to make future issues of this newsletter shorter and more frequent. I want to make them easier to read and easier to write. The process of writing the essay (even calling it an essay) is too ‘heavy’ at the moment. I’m inspired by Tom Critchlow’s recent post on Writing, Riffs, and Relationships to make future issues looser. I want to ask questions and start a conversation, rather than give answers.
A Note on the Images
All the pictures in this issue are from a walk I did last weekend, from Peckham Rye to Camden.
I was due to head South to meet Gosha and his family first thing. The light was incredible when I woke up so I hatched the plan to walk the whole way home, shooting along the way. It was the perfect excuse to sharpen my rusty street photography skills as well as restart my portraits of strangers project. I’m going to post an extended edit to my IG stories in the next few days. I enjoyed it so much that I plan to fit in more long London walks over the course of the year.
Links
To Read
Mad God
A story of artistic obsession, obsolescence and evolution centred on Phil Tippet and his labour of love: Mad God.
Pointing at Things — Austin Kleon
The story goes that the painter Al Held said, “Conceptual art is just pointing at things,” so John Baldessari decided to take him literally, and commissioned a bunch of amateur painters to paint realistic paintings of hands pointing at things
Make art to showcase what you love.
Rest in Motion by Nate Soares
I was modelling my work as finite, with the rest state being the state where all tasks were completed, and so every new task would push me further from that precious rest state and wear me down.
But the work that needs to be done is not a finite list of tasks, it is a never-ending stream. Clothes are always getting worn down, food is always getting eaten, code is always in motion. The goal is not to finish all the work before you; for that is impossible. The goal is simply to move through the work. Instead of struggling to reach the end of the stream, simply focus on moving along it.
Afro-Cuban Kissa by Kissa — Roden Newsletter Archive Incredible essay by Craig Mod about drumming, playing in bands in Tokyo in his twenties, quitting cold turkey, and then returning to drumming 14 years later. If you only click one link, make it this one.
To Listen
Music
moMINTs by Tobe Nwigwe
Death Grips meets Kendrick — smart, lyrical and fierce.
Ali by Vieux Farka Touré and Khruangbin
West African guitar by the son of Malian legend Ali Farka Touré. Shot through with jazz, electronic and dub influences. Deep, funky and smooth.
N’Djila Wa Mudjimu by Lady Aicha & Pisko Cranes Original Fulu Mziki of Kinsasha
Glorious insanity by Kinshasan instrument maker Cranes and ‘performance artist, sculptor and fashion designer’ Lady Aicha. Apparently this is Post-Congotronic, but as I have no idea what that means, I’ll just say that it’s raw, high energy and defiantly original. If this is the future of pop, I’m on board.
Podcasts
Survival in the Andes — You’re Wrong About
The truth behind the ‘plane crash in the Andes and survivors resort to cannabalism’ story. Things go from bad to worse to worserer — to such an extent that the cannibalism is actually a pretty minor side plot. An extraordinary story of community, loyalty, and the will to survive.
George Saunders Thinks You Should Watch Your Mind on The Active Voice
George Saunders on ego as a tool, facing reality, and the value of self-knowledge and bad reviews.
A Small Voice Podcast - 192 - Stephen Shore
Great interview with Stephen Shore about his life in photography using his excellent memoir Modern Instances as a jumping-off point.
To Watch
The Thing — John Carpenter, 1982
Disturbing, disorientating, disgusting — and SO DAMN GOOD.
Show & Tell: Joel Sternfeld vs Gregory Crewdson by Stephen Leslie
Lovely video essay comparing and contrasting the approaches of two of contemporary photography’s big hitters. Catnip for me — it nails the difference between Sternfeld’s eye for the strangeness and beauty in the everyday and Crewdson’s shallow theatrics.
To See
Strange Paradise - Photographs by Jake Ricker | Essay by Joanna L. Cresswell | LensCulture
An interview and portfolio focussed on Ricker’s photos taken on daily walks along the Golden Gate Bridge. Surrealism, humour, and desperation.
Famous Photographers’ Pictures of Their Partners
I love photographers’ pictures of their partners. There’s an ease, looseness and intimacy that is often missing from their more formal work. This Twitter thread features loads of great portraits that were new to me, mixed in with many old favourites.
