JAN DEEN
PHOTOGRAPHY

Toward Personal Style

Marcel Marceau Silent Nightmare, 1974

 
Image: Walton Goggins in Ars Erotica/

Discovery of an Art Form: In September of 1971 my first full page photo was published in Dance Magazine.  It was like a sudden religious revelation.   The event changed all priorities from commercial to aesthetic decisions  The photo credit became valued more than payment. Then there was watching my first web press run for a magazine I helped create: the endless roll of paper becoming uncut pages, the mechanical movements speeding sounds of press, the smell of ink.

Standards were being established compelling choice of subject matter which then influenced the people I would meet. A path opened . A kind of  language was forming as my vocabulary of performance and print media became clearer giving me criteria.    I now see the process as acquiring personal style from thought to materialization.

We need others with open minded expertise to share as critics to move from craft to artist.

A dedicated emotional participation was necessary for a strong expressive image to overtake sheer random efforts. In a sense, the photo was forming in Mindstuff I shared with the subjects. It follows that access to a high caliber of creative performers and personalities becomes the greatest gold . The artist/photographer is actually a Voyeur-Alchemist.

 

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