I've always thought that good photography should rattle your bones. There is a visceral quality to things that is difficult to write about, difficult to express, and essential to make pictures that truly rock. Stylized stuff never really has gotten me off. Like corporate rock, it always seems phony and hollow. But people have to start somewhere.
Turning on the radio, picking up a magazine, a person is assaulted with messages about "style." The easy response, once you've had enough is to leap into an alternative style which doesn't have such a broad following. Heading for the ditch, the wheels careen into new avenues for expression that may seem more sincere. But are they, always? I don't think so; when style displaces content as the thing that moves you, you've landed in indie hell. The new boss is ultimately the same as the old boss. Neither one gives me a bone anymore.
I'm always looking for people who feel. The cold slavery to style that permeates everything these days often gets me down. I don't care about style. I want to be rocked. But style is one of those woody stems that dominates any arrangement. And as in the art of flower arranging, the woody stems have to be beaten to a pulp before they will draw enough water to sustain a flower.
