Convince me...
"The purpose of a photograph is not to convince viewers that you were there, but to convince them that they are there." -Ted Mura
Did I convince you that Ted Mura is a real person? He resembles a historical photographer, but he is actually a character in a novel, Between Times. The quote is true enough, though. It is the job of any artist to disappear into the work, to leave the viewer or reader space to continue the creative interaction on their own terms.
No two people will see exactly the same thing in a photograph or a painting. A novel is rewritten in the mind of each reader. It is not the same story for everyone who comes to it. Readers of my own books sometimes describe to me what they've been reading, and I hardly recognize it. That doesn't mean they didn't get my story, only that it was a bigger story than I wrote. Whatever is alive grows and changes over seasons.
Henry's books.
Did I convince you that Ted Mura is a real person? He resembles a historical photographer, but he is actually a character in a novel, Between Times. The quote is true enough, though. It is the job of any artist to disappear into the work, to leave the viewer or reader space to continue the creative interaction on their own terms.
No two people will see exactly the same thing in a photograph or a painting. A novel is rewritten in the mind of each reader. It is not the same story for everyone who comes to it. Readers of my own books sometimes describe to me what they've been reading, and I hardly recognize it. That doesn't mean they didn't get my story, only that it was a bigger story than I wrote. Whatever is alive grows and changes over seasons.
Henry's books.
