It was once said that “you can lead a horse to water and you can even make him drink but, you can’t change his point of view”-Caedmon’s Call. I interpreted that to mean that you can force someone to go where you tell the person and do what you tell that person to do, but you can’t force that person to change how he or she feels about it or what he or she thinks about it. This is relevant in photography, because as photographers we are often trying to change or affect the minds of our viewers. Some photographers are often tempted to go over the top in beating their audience over the head with their messages. When they try to dial it down and attempt to carry their point with a little more subtlety they run the risk of their message getting lost. Recently I saw the work of an artist who successfully found the balance between noninvasive subtlety and clear communication. On Friday June 26th I attended “minus: an exhibition” a photography and painting show which took place in Atlanta at Studioplex. The concept of the show was minority groups. The artists involved in the exhibition were SCAD graduate photography and painting students. Photographer Karen Shacham’s work was successful in achieving the balance between clear communication and pleasant subtlety. Shacham’s series titled “Couples” was about lesbian couples and how they were no different from other couples. She posed them in an almost Olan Mills style; she had one person sitting in a chair with her partner standing beside her with the hand on the shoulder and the other holding hands. The women in the photographs were dressed in typical business casual clothes. The backgrounds appeared to be composed of cheesy traditional wallpaper. They were framed in traditional family picture frames. The titles of each piece were simply their names. Every aspect of the work including its presentation worked to communicate one thing: that lesbian couples are just as normal as mainstream traditional couples. In every aspect of the work she made the couples look like a stereotypical family photo communicating the normalcy of their relationship while subtlety mocking the traditional family photo and its cheesiness. Another artist that attempted to communicate the same message was Catherine Opie. However, Opie had her subjects dressed in ways that reflect the stereotypes of gay couples that cause people to see them as different. Opie creates work that is a little more in your face, but in doing so, she alienates a lot of her audience. Shacham did not make that mistake and will therefore be able to reach and affect a much broader audience. Lately I have been attempting to find a similar balance in my work. My struggle is between my humor and my message. In the beginning I was so over the top with the humor that my message got a little lost. I have learned to rein it in but I am still looking for the perfect balance. Well, goodbye.
