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WHAT
IT IS For
over a year I've been working on the subject of the Death Penalty and its significance
to our culture. This piece has grown out of the footage that I've shot for that
film, and some of the concepts I've been juggling. Important among those concepts:
I had an idea that the imposition of a strict formulaic process to living imagery
would drastically alter its appearance, much as the strict adherence to dogma
can disfigure or even destroy a life. On my way to the beach to film waterfowl,
I had the misfortune to witness a truck smack into a bird in flight and drive
unflinchingly on. As I waited with the bird for help, I brought my camera to bear
on it. It felt awful, as if I were revisiting the violence done by the trucker.
It made little difference that my machinery was held at a distance, I was aware
of myself imposing a violation on this hapless creature. When I saw this footage
projected I was deeply disturbed, and felt much gut-wrenching empathy with this
bird, and horror at the recognition (really the remembrance) of the camera (the
machine & I) callously whirring on in its fearful face.
The process that I
employed in making this film recaptured that relationship. The manner in which
I re-photographed these images forced me into the role of automaton. There was
no space for thought beyond the continual focus on the Frame Count. If my mind
were to think beyond the operation of my arm in concert with the machine, only
failure would result. Discipline in this case meant the purging of any musings
on the nature or qualities of the imagery itself beyond the purely numerical position
it held on the scale of 400 frames. I could not see in any way the mutilations
of form that were occurring within the camera. I was conscious of what I was doing
within the sphere of the machine, but had neither the slightest hope of pathos
nor any form of recognition of my subject matter. I certainly had no sense of
the consequences of my actions. The "whole" that I was creating was
for the sake of mathematics and optical mechanics. I was playing the engineer,
designer of human civilization. I was thereby, I believe, taking on the role of
executioner.
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