Writing an Artist Statement
I am in the process of re-thinking about how I see myself. Professionally speaking that is. A sort of internal rebranding. Making sense of where I have come from as a photographer and where I hope to go as an artist. The title switch is intentional. I’m fully aware that calling myself an artist could be wrong! A friend said to me recently, that artists are to be held in reverence and only the very few can claim to be one. That could well be true! I see it as a positive affirmation however and I’ll let that refrain loop in my head as I move forward to the next phase of my photographic journey. Ultimately by understanding the implications of calling myself an artist, it compels me to up my game plan. Create a mission statement. Write an artist statement.
The task of sitting down and writing one has been one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do. And now it’s published and out there, I’m still not exactly sure it’s right. But does it matter? Is there such a thing as exactly right anyway? Most importantly for me, it has helped to crystallize my thoughts. To make sense of the reasons I picked up a camera in the first place.
My artist statement should make sense to me. For after all it is my statement. Likewise I feel it makes perfect sense to present it in such a way that it makes sense to those who might read it. And therein lies my rub. How many of you would agree that quite often artists statements are so embalmed in flowery art-speak that they make no sense at all?
There has been a lot written on the subject of writing the ‘perfect’ statement. I considered many of the so called do’s and dont’s.
Do- talk about your overall vision, why you have created the work and it’s history. Do deliver it in a balanced emotional tone.
Don’t — brag, or use grandiose and empty expressions or cliches (isn’t that what art-speak is half of the time?). Don’t write with an air of pomposity and self importance.
I wrote a few different drafts and passed them onto friends to read. They all had their opinions, and so I decided the best option would be to simply have have faith in my own judgement, and just write from the heart.
I present it to you today, not in written form, because I have written enough here, but rather I created a short video instead. I call it an artist statement in moving chiaroscuro. It can be seen by clicking the the link
I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has written their own artist statement and what they learned from writing it.
