The Brilliance of Frank Ockenfels

I like to inform myself a bit of white lie: we’re returning to the outdated methods in pictures as a result of we’re realizing that they’re finest. The reality, after all, is a deeper dialog round a scarcity of originality and self-rediscovery. And so the work of photographer Frank Ockenfels is sufficient to make any portrait photographer looking for concepts and inspiration need to dive into the darkroom. Photographers as of late yearn for extra than simply the chilly digital expertise. There are sensory wants enormously lacking from digital pictures that make us an eye fixed floating in house with no different senses to offer us details about the world. At Fotografiska, NY, photographers will expertise the loopy dialog that pictures has with itself. And for under a short while longer, you’ll be able to dive into some very troublesome questions on pictures.

The exhibit showcases blended media, an concept that artwork consumers tried to convey again a couple of years in the past, solely to die to on-line algorithms. So, I like to think about the exhibit of Ockenfels not as a resurrection of this concept however as a reanimation. The concept is lifeless — and we’re simply taking part in with it like a puppet and plaything. We’re Frankenstein — and like Ockenfels, we’re selecting and selecting the most effective components for our creation till we give it life. And as soon as it has life, it must be handled with the kindness that each being deserves.

These concepts are given life within the exhibit as we see notes that Ockenfels wrote to himself initially and later integrated into his ultimate items.

Ockenfels’s work, I imagine, brings up a vital dialog about pictures at this time. The next questions had been ever current in my thoughts whereas visiting the exhibit:

What’s {a photograph}?

How can we make {a photograph}?

What’s the distinction between a picture, a snapshot, and {a photograph}?

Can AI make {a photograph} in that case many made collages earlier than us and referred to as them pictures?

Are composites pictures? In that case, then does it actually matter in the event that they’re made by a human or not?

Do labels matter in a world the place photographers have been preventing for thus lengthy to be acknowledged as artists?

Taking a look at a lot of Frank’s work, one wouldn’t suppose they’re pictures. As a substitute, they’re blended media composites carried out within the darkroom manually, with each painstaking half carried out by a human. Within the darkroom, one couldn’t summon the power of AI within the cloud to magically put a leopard into a photograph of the jungle. One additionally wanted to seek out methods to mix the lighting collectively via actual firming. None of these items had been carried out mechanically — they had been all carried out by hand. To that finish, the expertise has reached its peak within the analog world.

For the creation of his work, Frank has a wholly completely different dialog round gear. It’s not concerning the cameras, the sharpness of the lenses, and so forth. As a substitute, it’s all concerning the paper, working with peel-apart Polaroids, different processes, and compositing the pictures collectively.

All of this brings up an excellent larger query: does the method matter? If an AI could make all these items inside a picture, why are we saying that what it’s doing shouldn’t be {a photograph}? If an individual makes your complete factor by themselves digitally, does that make it {a photograph}? Are all of the composites of star trails on social media put over random night time scenes to be labeled as composites or pictures? Does doing this digitally in a day when all this work could be shortly carried out for us make the method much less creative? How can we discover proof in photos made with genuine creative intent in opposition to these made with a couple of clicks of a button?

I feel the concept of the creative battle is frequent amongst so many photographers. Genuine pictures typically falls into two segments: creating or documenting. When creating, there may be typically some form of creative battle being put forth within the making of the photographs. The creative battle is usually a lovely course of that merges the creative and artistic minds collectively whereas the 2 attempt to converse in a second language.

These are ideas that I imagine each self-respecting artist who calls themselves a photographer ought to be asking themselves when visiting the exhibit at Fotografiska NY. Extra importantly, Frank Ockenfels might need the solutions to what may separate us from AI.