Photographs

Art is a pretext for desire, nothing more, nothing less, the point around which we build our desire-pleasure structure, individually, collectively, sexually, socially. At Fluxus, Robert Filliou tells us “Art serves to make life more interesting than art”. I like this phrase, but I’d shift the focus from art to life, something like this: “Life is everything, art is the pretext,” it’s the oil, the technique, the motor. A pretext for learning, building, experimenting and desiring. Photography isn’t about capturing life in a photo and saying, look, here’s a trace of life, here’s a trace of love. Nor is it a question of being iconoclastic, of denying it by saying the image is to be abandoned, the interest lies elsewhere. Acting as a pretext, the photo stimulates the situation, sometimes producing it, sharpening, constraining and sculpting desire. Focal aperture, exposure time, sensitivity, framing, the perfect moment, all appear to be of secondary importance, if not, once again, a motive, because the issue is no longer the photograph itself, but the life it helps to bring to life.