We all live within systems, some we don’t see because they are part of the political world that we inhabit and some because they are the natural world around us. For example we do not see the systems that create the air that we breathe some of these systems are busy polluting that very same air that we breathe and others would if allowed provide us with clean air that would be good for our health. I have recently discovered the website of a Canadian photographer called Tony Fouhse. I particularly like his blog as he talks about photography and the system and politics and photography if you get the idea. A post that I just read on The System I quite like. He is articulating things that I have been thinking about for the past few years.

“I’m happy to let the chips fall where they may because, in the end, not only do I have to live with the system, I also have to live with myself.”

Tony Fouhse, January 19, 2020

Photographers often struggle with a lot in their work and I have been known to have similar dilemmas as I want my work to mean something, that is often hard to achieve in a medium that is all about surface, the nature of photography is such that it only shows what something looks like, at a specific time, with a specific lens, camera film/sensor/processing combo, dependant on where the photographer stood to make the image and the moment that the photographer chose to press the shutter on their camera. These things aside the photographer who wants to make work that is critical of the times and systems that they live within will also struggle with how to make an image that is open to interpretation mean what it is that they want it to say. People are also going to look at something and interpret it though their own filter/lens or seeing and perception so all images by their very nature are not fixed in their meaning. This only complicates matters for the concerned photographer.

I like Tony Fouhse’s photography, his approach, I get and that does not happen very often for me when it comes to other photographers.

I started to read Tony’s blog from the most recent post then decided on trying an experiment. I fast forwarded to the start of his blog and started to read from his first post back in August 4, 2006 and then moved forward it time. That for me was far more interesting as I could see how Tony had progressed from a Commercial photographer to someone who wants to talk about images, politics and the state of the world. It takes courage to do so on your work platform, as you will alienate some of your potential clients and maybe, just maybe find others who identify with your world view.

I watched a YouTube video recently and I can’t remember who it was by talking about this and how most photographers want to be liked however that was a thing that is not going to happen. So his advice was to get over it and realise that you would never please everyone and just aim to find the people who would be your tribe and supporters. Those people will buy your worldview and any products/images that you make.

This I think is an important thing to realise, find the strength to have your own voice and don’t worry about offending others as you will be able to find an audience if you work hard and make something interesting.

Which leads me to this line of thought from Tony’s blog.

“The photography I’m seeing (and here I’m talking about “serious” photographers’ work) . . . the photography I’m seeing seems to mostly feature two approaches. Broadly speaking:

• You’ve got folks who are interested in photographing and contextualizing the social and political aspects of the times. (Here is a link to an in-depth look at what I consider political photography.)
• On the other hand you’ve got folks whose images seem to imply nothing much has changed. I see these kinds of images as being akin to pictorialism. (Encyclopædia Britannica describes pictorialism as: an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.)”

Tony Fouhse May 31, 2020

I see an aspect of either of these strands in work of a lot of photographers, and it is something that I want to explore in my own work, I will let you guess which strand that I am trying to explore with my own work.

I will probably write more on my immersion into Tony’s world as I try to read the rest of his blog entries. This is something that I have never done before, it feels like I am taking a deep dive into someone else’s mind as they move from 2006 to 2022. I am keen to read his blog to see his thought process as he moves from a photographer just talking about his commercial photographic work to someone who talks about politics and photography. For me that development is the bit that I am curious about.