The epistemic excesses of Photography.
Ever since it was developed Modern Photography’s power came from the fact that it could reproduce what the Artist saw with more exactness than anything before it. We still hold this notion, like children holding on to a birthday present. The initial actions of surprise and covertness of the child for its present may be said to hold true for the epistemic exactness of Photography. From 1822 till now this has been the one certainty and until photography understands that in the obviously visible there is a world of invisibility it will always remain in puberty.
However as a Photographer when I perceive an object there is no guarantee of visual consistency or permanence but rather an infinite number of possibilities. If we question ( and as Photographers we should) that there is visual uncertainty of what we see in front of us and also question the biological processes that allow us to see, then Photography, more than any other art form will allow us to reach deeper into the invisible, and move from the continuing epistemic excesses and become more aligned to the Avant Guard, more specifically Suprematism, Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism.
“…a blissful sense of liberating non-objectivity drew me forth into a “desert”, where nothing is real except feeling..”.
Kazimir Malevich. Part II of The Non-Objective World (from the BAUHAUS book No 11. 1927)
S H Bean ~ Photographer 
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