Artist statements bore me to death.
But if I must, let me just say…
I am Chris. This is my art.
And if you must know, my ultimate wish is for a world filled with such love, peace and freedom that words like “war” and “weapons” simply do not exist.
I wish this for my children. I wish this for you.
How can I save the world with my photography?
I don’t know.
But he told me all I have to do is show up.
Prints
Ansel Adams once said "Why limit the number of prints one can make from a medium that is by nature unlimited and in which each print of an image is potentially as good as all other prints?"
Alfred Stieglitz, one of the world's most collected and influential fine art photographers said "My ideal is to achieve the ability to produce numberless prints from each negative, prints all significantly alive, yet indistinguishably alike, and to be able to circulate them at a price not higher than that of a popular magazine, or even a daily paper. To gain that ability there has been no choice but to follow the road I have chosen."
I am choosing a different road. All newly released images will only be available in a signed Limited Edition of 1, regardless of size. Why only one, in an art form that allows us to produce a limitless number of prints? This has been an idea I've had for quite some time that started with my study of other art forms. As a photographer, I've always been inspired much more by painters. By the nature of their chosen art form, the painter is limited to only one original "edition" of their work. This enables them to live in the presence of their art and once complete, to move on.
I believe this approach more closely resembles a basic principle of life, living in the moment and not reliving the past. When I am out there photographing and all the forces of nature come together instinctively triggering me to trip the shutter, I am never able to get that moment back. That exposure is a sliver in time that I cannot relive. So isn't printing only one of that image more faithful and honorable to that moment? For me it is. This is why I've chosen a much different path than the rest of the photography world. Rather than printing images over and over again constantly reliving the past, I will print once and move on to my next subject. Just as in life we, must move on.
To reinforce this idea, all Artist’s Proofs will be destroyed upon completion of the final print. Never will they make it out into the world, possibly devaluing the final work and relationship with my collectors.
Some have said I am crazy to take this approach. That this is not the way things are done in the fine art photography world. That it will be impossible to get my work out there at any kind of level of success. That it will be impossible to make any real level of money with my art.
All I can tell you are three things. First, this feels right to me. And if I am to be true to my art I must be true to myself. Second, I am not concerned with money. I am only concerned with the trueness of art. Lastly…do not tell me what I cannot do.