Ship and Sure: Taking me Home
The next in my mini series “Taking me Home. Another b/w infrared photo taken on my recent trip to somewhere deep inside of myself. A journey is not always just a trip away. Sometimes a journey is the path that we must take to find something within ourselves in order that we can grow as souls while on a pilgrimage back to our hearts. Sometimes in order to grow and reach our full potential we need to put ourselves into difficult situations so that we can find the truth at the centre of our very beings.
This is often very difficult to do or even to acknowledge as it means allowing ourselves to be taken to the outer limits of our potential, and sometimes risking ridicule and not only that. Sometimes it means risking ecstasty and real self knowledge. In order to come to self knowledge we sometimes need to put aside sensation and come to a place of real feeling.
Contemporary culture discourages us from venturing in to these tricky realms. We are supposed to consume extreme experiences, but not to live them. We are bombarded with messages that encourage us to lose our truth in idle sensation in order to supress and dull our real feelings. And so our experiences become synthetic and not really satisfactory. But we can take another path…. if we so choose.
This image is then a metaphor for leaving on a journey of self realization. If I leave the shore then can I be sure that I will know myself as a result? No I can’t be sure but I know I need to try. If I can be sure of only one thing as an artist then that is I need to risk the annihilation of all ego and expectation of any reward in order to achieve the mysterious and profound that makes my art powerful.
This image of a ship so still berthed in this calm harbour is also then me saying to myself …. I am sure that my ship will come in and that when it does it will take me to a place of light/enlightenment. Nothing else will sufice or I can not in truth call myself an artist.
Ship and Sure: Taking me Home belongs to the following groups:
Infrared Photography Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
Peter Davidson
At the top of the frame, those look like development streaks from insufficient agitation. However, they give an odd, other-wordly feel, a compelling extra aspect to the shot. as if the God’s are looking down on insignificant beings.
Juilee Pryor
got it in one sunshine. the D-76 was a bit old and had it. But it suits me to have it that way. The ship is a metaphoric allusion to my self…alone and ready to leave the sureness of the shore in order to embark on a very big jouney of self realization. Can’t do this with digital. The trace of analouge heightens the memorial aspects of a journey with in. Even if I tryed to fake it in PS it wouldn’ t be the same. Imagine this as an exhibition print really really large and in a darkened spotlit room. powerful and loney all right.
Patricia L. Ba...
We must be about the same age, Juilee. Actually, I think that you’re younger than I am. We’re at a time, however old we are, when we’re thinking about relaxing and realizing that we cannont control the universe. It’s best to find that tranquil place and let if come at you.
Juilee Pryor replied
Hi Pat yes you are right… but within that tranquil place is a challege to really question the universe and our place in it…. which is what I’m trying to do with photo’s like this…. I’ve got no time left for being facile or any excuses left for being shallow.
Patricia L. Ba...
Age is liberating. We give up so much of the crap.
Ern Mainka
The repeating lighter patches at the top of the frame look to me to be a light leak that are associated with the sprocket holes of the film. They will no doubt line up with the sprocket holes if you view the negative. Infra-red film is incredibly sensitive and prone to this type of film fogging. I’ve too have examples like this on some of my infra-red negs. The fogging can happen by light leaking into the camera perhaps through the film loading door or during re-loading which must be done in absolute darkness.
Juilee Pryor replied
Hi Ern…. yes yes I know a sprocket hole when I see one… and because of that I am able to make good use of them as an artistic device…. being stuck in the middle of the digital/analouge devide I choose to emphasise the analouge trace in order to play the memory/nostalgic/handmade whatever feeling of the image so that I as an artist can make a visual statement in the form of a work of art.
Which is what I have done here…. I’ve delibrately emphasied the effects of fogging at the top and the vingeretting at the bottom of the image. The series of work is called “taking me home” and is about a personal journey so this sort of device is appropriate to this particular series of artworks.
Sometimes a photograph is just a record of reality and sometimes with clever or subtle manipulation by the artist it ceases to be a photograph and becomes a work of Art… which is were I’m going with this lot…
Art and Science are different but work well together. One is not better that the other…. and combined they create something that sometimes comes close to the other big thing…. Spirituality….. and that’s were I want to take my research and my art making…. and to do that I need to work with all three of those things together….. Art + Science+ Spirituality
Clare McClelland
Excellent stuff Juilee! You are so, literally, spirited, in your interactions, it’s no surprise your work is so interesting, not to mention provocative!! Go you good thing!!!
Juilee Pryor replied
hey thanks Claire…. that is so nice of you to say that…. I just reread it and I’m cringeing abit but it’s how I felt at the time… you know than place though too ….the utter immensisty of it all…
Clare McClelland
I confess I based my comment on having trawled over some of your other works, reading the comments (I don’t know where you find the time to elaborate so fully! Maybe you think and type very quickly!!!). Ended up at this pic and felt a lot of admiration for your talented work, and spirited viewpoints!!!
I am longing to go back to the big A, but not sure if it will happen again..how about you?
Juilee Pryor replied
hi Clare and once again thanks for your great comments….yes I kind of just wrote all that stuff straight into the box without much thought so it feels like a bit of verbal you know what to me now but it’s exactly what I was thinking at the time….
and yes I’d go back in a flash… thinking of going north next actually…. Iceland has become quite appealling of late I must confess…..look who knows… I’m kind of up for anything at the moment….:)
and hey all the very very best of the season to you….. big hugs at Christmas…