The Blakes. “Un-moment” by Chase Jarvis
When I was a less experienced artist, I thought that less gloss meant less talent. For, after all, it seemed to me to be commonly assumed in our culture that talent resided only in the gloss, the perfection, and the polish. If your art didn’t have polish it was only because you we’re able to apply it.
Now, I tend to feel just the opposite. Gloss, more often than not, acts as a substitute for soul, a clear vision, intent. It’s certainly more challenging to find the perfect vintage car to purchase than it is to select a shiny new sports car. It seems like gloss too often is the easy way out.
Cartier-Bresson
Photographically, for me, this translates away from traditional, more “perfect” images and toward the more real moments. It’s the off moments, or rather the “un-moments” that make stronger, more emotionally charged images. Those images feel more like my life—far more imperfect and far more relevant.
There are a million images around us to prove my point. Think of the work of so many masters. Cartier-Bresson. Think of Warhol’s photos, of Avedon’s. Or more modernly, of Ryan McGinley’s or Chris Buck. Examples from my own work can be found in the Seattle 100: Portrait of a City book
. I shot 100,000 images for that book, and the ones the made the final 300-image book edit were almost always this “un-moment” of which I write. These un-moments–these instants just before and just after those photographic moments that have been so historically revered in our culture–seem so much more revealing, engaging, and meaningful. My growing experience tells me that this sliver of time that captures the spontaneous and the genuine and pierces through the façade of a conventionally “perfect” portraits does so in a way that more accurately reveals the truly human.
Certainly there are exceptions to my hypothesis abound – where polished images succeed – its simply my hope that we suspend our de facto acceptance of the new-and-polished and recognize that it’s more often something gritty that challenges us to find a deeper aesthetic, take a longer vision and seek more soulful connections. Put simply, “gritty” may require more emotional and metaphysical investment from us viewers, but it is far less deceitful than “glossy” and creates a far greater opportunity for culturally-relevant, creative success.
[this post is adapted from a piece on design that I origially wrote for Arcade Magazine]
just the words that i need! im trapped with the rules of this art. thank you chase. 🙂
im gonna include the “un-moments” in my frames from now on. thank you!
I have been experiencing this phenom of the un-moment myself. I do enjoy the look of a polished portrait. However, the moment pre/proceeding such moments are always my favorite. Sometimes I find my subjects don’t enjoy them as much. It seems that the vulnerability in these un-moments may be a bit more then they wanted to show to the world, which I can understand. To me though, they will always be the treasured ones.
Cheers for the post
Chase
I think the real point to take away from this post is that you prefer genuine photographs, not ones that the subject “fakes” for the sake of the camera and then returns to their “normal” after the shot is taken… i still think that the decisive moment is what you are after, however i think the decisive moment you are after is not the one that we would think of as the decisive moment. it’s not the perfect smile, it’s not the most beautiful shot of a person, but the most true, genuine and honest expression that the subject gives.
thanks for the thoughts got me thinking!
For me, this is the main reason why I am not excited about frame grabs from HD Video (like the RED or other upcoming video cameras) because where’s the art in dragging slowing through a video time line to find that “magic” un-moment? That’s not magic to me nor is it interesting.