Quote Source
Artist Statement
In my chronologically long involvement with Mexico, beginning in 1958, when I went to Chihuahua to lay my mother to rest, to the present, I find my sensitivities have evolved towards an excitement for the color and iconography that I feel is particularly Mexican.
In contrast, while photographing in Extremadura Spain in 1985, I was struck by the lack of color and realized that it was "Indianismo" which was mainly responsible for the coloration of the man-made landscape in Mexico.
In 1988 I put aside black and white, and began photographing in color, while maintaining reality within the framework of the organization of space and the surreal qualities that typifies my earlier and ongoing work. This photographic approach continues today with all my projects and images.
John Spence Weir
Artist Statement-1975
WHAT IS A PHOTOGRAPH SUPPOSED TO BE?
Whenever someone asks me "what is a photograph supposed to do," I find that my answer, if pressed, is ambiguous at best.
I believe that the best answer may be not to tell a person what a photograph should be--but to ask them to respond to a particular photograph and ask himself what it means to him.
An image if literal, has many times, an easily digestible group of symbols which the viewer can .understand because of prior associations with them. As the symbols become more abstract or metaphorical, the viewer becomes more challenged in understanding the meanings and many times he comes to the image with a preconception which impedes the visual, emotional, or intellectual massage that can be gained from a more open approach.
The making of a significant photograph is difficult because it is an art form that appears deceptively easy. Almost everyone can "take a picture," but to give the viewer of that picture a feeling of having gained something from having viewed the photograph requires, on the part of the photographer, that sensitivity towards the medium that is necessary in all Art.
John Spence Weir, 1975
