AS CLOSE AS I COULD GET (10 Seconds)

 

Based directly on John Divola’s As Far As I Could Get, this series presents an inversion of the original by running towards the camera (as opposed to away from it). The distance I ran is based (approximately) off the length of my camera’s self-timer (ten seconds) in relation to the longest distance that can be run in that amount of time (approximated to one hundred metres, and based off records). Obviously, the chances of reaching the camera are very low, and so similarly to Divola’s work, the series presents a failing: here, the impossibility of reaching the camera is considered (while Divola’s deals with the impossibility of escaping the camera’s ‘eye’). The images, recorded digitally, are edited to more closely resemble those that they are based on.

This piece repeats history in two ways- first, with its obvious reference to the past: the source material is clearly instrumental in the creation of this series. Second, each image (like Divola’s) repeats the same story; that failed attempt to negotiate a physical gap in ten seconds. Moving from one image to another, there is a vague hope, an urge, to see that somehow the next frame will record SUCCESS, yet none do. Where Divola’s work is shaded by emancipation (it records an escape, and each frame details his success), this piece presents a sort of inevitability to impossibility- that is, the failure to reach the camera in time. Both pieces bring to mind ideas of captivity and escape, with each artist ultimately captured by the lens, regardless of direction. A struggle many photographers deal with is the urge, or lack thereof, to continue making images, and this piece considers both sides.

AS CLOSE AS I COULD GET presents the camera as all seeing, all knowing, and most importantly, all-powerful.

 

 

As Far As I Could Get can be viewed at

http://bit.ly/rJPCWA