Leaves & Sticks — John Back

Variations

In Difficult Questions, Easy Answers, Robert Graves writes: “The trance into which a genius falls during the creative act gives him access to the whole treasure-house of personal and inherited memory . . . Genius will thus include the power to interpret a dream that would seem absolute nonsense if told, out of context, at the breakfast table.”

Graves is speaking of genius in the creative context as spirit or intuitive inspiration, a description of the creative process that resonated for me, especially in relation to the photographic work I have in progress called Variations. These images are made in kind of a meditative trance that opens “access to the whole treasure-house of personal and inherited memory.” They rely on formal compositional elements for their construction. The intention is to create an abstract form by altering the identity of the subject. The way to do that is to experience things differently, seeing things cinematically, meditatively.

“Variations” is a term that has been used in many forms of fine art, dance, music and poetry, and refers to work that transforms an original theme or image by playing with the various elements- rhythm, scale, tone, mood, focus, detail, point of view – to achieve variations that illuminate the established theme and invoke new perceptions.

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