©Scott Pollack 2004. All rights reserved
This started with my contradictory fascination with photographs of the human form and my dissatisfaction with the cold, clinical images that I saw and that I made. I wanted photographs that reminded me of the image in my mind's eye rather than being about parts or agendas or stories. It seemed that there were qualities inherent in the medium of photography that contributed to the distance I found in figure work and that a careful manipulation of those qualities might produce something different.
I'm interested in the reactions that these images elicit; the experience that these two-dimensional objects draw from myself and any viewer. In how implied gesture, movement and light put onto paper works on the viewer, hopefully adding up to more than what is actually on the page. How shape and tone, without trying to represent reality, can evoke a set of visceral feelings that seem real.
All of this has led me to a very specific way of working. I shoot very long, hand-held exposures on film that, when exposed in a particular way, produce wide tonal gradations and strong color. I print digitally using a pigment process on matte paper for a soft, tactile image. I have found a method which maximizes chance since I cannot know what any photograph will actually look like until I'm done. It lets me separate the process of shooting from seeing, allowing me to react to what is on the page rather than to what I remember from when I shot. Ultimately, all of this careful planning gives me the freedom to work with the purposeful lack of intention that is central to my work.
