Fredric Nord‘s photographs from ‘Death To Photography’ are both fascinating and a statement of intent, a signal, a signpost that gives us some clue as to where we’re going when looking at his rather extraordinary series of photographs that exist wholly within themselves, have no meaning outside their own image. They do not wish to tell a story, examine ideas or hint at beauty.
However, this negation of image making is an impossible task for the act of choosing an image gives us a sense of the artist behind it. As an artist Nord is determined to make work – whether it be as a photographer or writer, that is not based on any specific subject and is non-biographical – without explaining or making sense of it. He looks to poetry for inspiration yet doesn’t want to see his work as poetic, rather he wants these images to be as they are, arbitrary pictures that are inexplicable, that contest the need for meaning in everything. He wants to make photographs that resist meaning at all costs, that exist only for themselves.
Yet it cannot be. The notion that we can see an image without contextualising it is impossible, however its this very concept that pushes Nord onwards, his process of art making a constant questioning and searching for non meaning, a non-language that seeks to encapsulate – as he puts it himself – a visual wondering, an aesthetic enigma. For Nord the world is rich in thought provoking images. The photographic image only a facsimile of its glory.
A beautiful idea. But an idea nonetheless. It’s almost as if Nord has found himself in a trap of his own making. Trying to create images that are separate from himself and his perception of the world while being inextricably linked to his conceptual view of art and the world in which he lives. Nord’s considered thought has given us beautiful images. Whether they defy meaning can only be down to the individual spectator. Here’s what he has to say about this series:
Death to Photography is all about finding the centre of photography in a very personal sense. Kind of like ”if these were the last images I was ever going to make, what would I end up with” or perhaps “how simple can I be and still keep the sense of wonder”. I actually don’t know how to better explain because words have a tendency to obscure photography rather than enlighten. I just make images, I always did, I’ve tried to stop – honest attempts – but it’s like holding your breath or stop having sex.
In his artist statement he includes an interesting and thought provoking quote by the writer Jeanette Winterson:
The usual response of “This painting has nothing to say to me” had become “I have nothing to say to this painting.” I have nothing to say to that statement except that this ’method’ must also be available as a way of looking at the world.