An Introduction to The Surveyor Chronicles – Substance
An Introduction to The Surveyor Chronicles Substance
Part 1: Purpose and The Title
In the first post – Context – I introduced my experience taking the photographs that would become ‘The Surveyor Chronicles’, while working in the field of cathodic protection.
As a side note, I forgot to mention two things in the first post. First, I worked primarily in Alberta, but also in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, all in Canada. Second, most of the pipelines I worked with are used to transport natural gas. If I remember correctly, some of them were installed as far back as the late 60s and 70s, while others were installed more recently, after 2010.
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Anyway, this time I’d like to explore and expand on the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of the series. The substance of The Surveyor Chronicles.
What did I want to accomplish by taking these photographs?
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In short, I wanted to capture the daily journeys of ‘The Surveyor’. This worker who walks long distances of desolate spaces to record data from buried pipelines. During these daily journeys, the surveyor faces many challenges: terrible weather, horrible terrain, technical failures, the danger of wildlife, the need for mental fortitude and physical endurance, fatigue, loneliness; to name the ones that come to mind.
The Title
I should also talk about the title. ‘The Surveyor Chronicles’ is something that I finally came up with when working on the first release. I think it best encapsulates all the different facets of the concept: the job, my approach to capturing the work itself, and my perspective and feelings on the whole experience, especially what I felt a surveyor goes through while in the field.
Although I had a somewhat clear idea of what I was doing while capturing the experience, I felt a little conflicted on whether the work should be ‘dry’ like a documentary or brimming with emotion and a reflection of myself. I personally find that work that is too ‘dry’, takes away the ‘magic’ of the subject matter. And even though I find it a lot easier to pour myself into my art, I can understand that it may be more difficult for the viewer to empathize when ‘I’ become a clear medium of the artwork. Therefore, I tried to keep a balance between those facets: showing the experience as it was, while actively trying to output some of the wonder and mystery of what a surveyor goes through while exploring these spots of bushland, marshland, woods, farmland, and mountains.
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Part 2: Romantic Influence and Artistic Approach
Romantic Influence
To give some context, I’ve always felt a deep melancholy. It amplifies my emotions, gives me an ability to feel deeper and therein has fueled my creativity throughout my life. And like a kind of fundamental subconscious that is equal to the way the Romantics thought and felt, I felt a connection to the Romantic movement, even when I had never read much about it, let alone study it.
In the past when people asked me about my work, I always struggled to explain my emotions, and thought they could be communicated by briefly attempting to describe them by name. And saying something like “I’m a romantic” was too vague to be understood, especially by others who are not familiar with the philosophy or values. But I finally decided to study it further. Reading about and exploring the art of the Romantic period, I was finally able to see so much of what I’ve always felt meticulously put into words.
Artists of the Romantic period viewed creating art as an intensely personal and emotional endeavor. They believed that art should be an expression of the artist’s inner feelings, imagination, and individual experience, rather than just a representation of the external world. Melancholy and introspection were common themes, as artists often explored the darker aspects of the human experience, finding beauty in sorrow and solitude. Many Romantics saw art as a means to explore spiritual and transcendental themes, seeking to connect with something greater than the mundane, everyday experience. Art was a way to explore the depths of the human soul and the mysteries of existence.
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Romantic artists placed a significant emphasis on the self in the context of creating art. Two key points highlighting their views on the self and its relation to art are:
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Individual Expression: The self was central to the act of creating art. Romantic artists believed that art should be a direct expression of the artist’s inner world—emotions, thoughts, dreams, and imagination. The uniqueness of the individual’s perspective was celebrated, and personal authenticity was highly valued.
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Emotional Authenticity: The Romantics held that genuine art came from deep emotional experiences. The self, with all its passions, anxieties, joys, and sorrows, was the wellspring from which true art emerged. They sought to convey the raw and authentic feelings of the artist.
Building on this, The Romantics viewed melancholy as a profound and essential part of the creative process. Novalis saw melancholy as a potent and necessary component of the human experience. By acknowledging and using melancholy, he believed that one could gain profound insights and create works of lasting beauty and significance. The Romantic poet John Keats, believed in and tried to maintain his melancholy at a “sweet spot” to fuel his creativity.
There remains a challenging distinction to explain to those who may not realize the difference between melancholy and simple depression or sadness.
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“Despair has ascending degrees. From crushing despair, one rises to dejection, from dejection to affliction, from affliction to melancholy. Melancholy is a twilight. Suffering melts into a dark joy within it. Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad.”
– Victor Hugo, Romantic Writer
In his research paper ‘The Difference Between Melancholy And Depression’, Stefan Bolea also explains, “melancholy has the kind of anti-gravitational sweetness which is not present in depressive states”. And there is indeed a warm caress hidden within the sadness of melancholy.
Artistic Approach
One of the things that I also came to understand then was the capricious distance between the subject and myself. I think I’ve always liked to capture subjects at a certain distance, one that I determined more by feeling than by calculation. A distance that captures their world at that moment. A distance not so personal or invasive that you can see every detail in their face without leaving anything to mystery, but close enough to enter their world and to be able to have an attempt at guessing their emotions and personality. Just enough to empathize with their existence. Looking at paintings from the Romantic period helped me finally materialize that artistic approach of embracing the ‘right distance’, the one that matches my perspective on life, existence, and therefore, my art.
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In combination with the aforementioned ‘right distance’, there is another distinctive Romantic expression that I had perhaps subconsciously come close to but not fully grasped, and have now come to embrace. In this series specifically, it is the usage of my crew members as a key motif for Romantic expression. Romantic painters often depicted solitary figures facing the vastness of the natural world, symbolizing a journey into the unknown or an internal quest. This emphasizes the insignificance of humans compared to the grandeur of nature, capturing moments of introspection and profound emotional experiences.
Perhaps no other piece is as self-explanatory as the ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ by German Romanticist Caspar David Friedrich. This painting represents the quintessential Romantic dreamer, focusing his curiosity on nature and its sublime qualities, just as much as on the depths of human emotion and the complexities of the human condition. Other examples such as ‘The Monk by the Sea’, ‘The Chasseur in the Forest’, both also by Friedrich, and ‘Moonrise’ by Carl Wagner depict themes of loneliness and introspection, and mysterious and melancholic moods. These works perfectly embody the kind of ‘felt philosophy’ which I find it extremely emblematic of my own psyche and (artistic) vision, and which I attempt to allude to in my photographs.
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
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- The Monk by the Sea by Caspar David Friedrich
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- The Chasseur in the Forest by Caspar David Friedrich
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- Moonrise by Carl Wagner
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To close this post, I want to highlight an additional integral aspect of this series: my approach to capturing the mystery and desolation of nature. Earlier, I touched upon the inherent magic and mystery of subject matter. I strive to infuse my work with its natural wonder, preserving those magical and mysterious qualities by avoiding overly clear depictions. While I took advantage of my crew members as motifs when working alongside them, many times we worked alone, requiring me to showcase my own perspective directly, without a representative for the solitary figure deep in the desolation of nature.
Imbued with the ever-present sense of the unknown when traversing swampland, facing the possibility of hostile wildlife encounters, battling through nearly impassable brush, and climbing steep mountains, I aimed to preserve these inescapable realities in the photographs. Additionally, the air of melancholy that has lingered throughout my life accompanied me on these journeys, allowing me to infuse each photograph with a deeper emotional resonance. By embracing the Romantic spirit, I aim to convey the grandeur, beauty, and existential contemplation inherent in these solitary explorations, merging the external landscapes with the internal landscapes of the soul.
You can take a look at the releases of The Surveyor Chronicles below.
June 21, 2024 @ 9:35 pm
Excelente!😎👏👏👏
June 30, 2024 @ 11:06 pm
Muchas gracias por leer!
June 29, 2024 @ 4:49 pm
What a well-written piece into your creative process. I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts on your other works.
June 30, 2024 @ 11:05 pm
Thank you for the encouragement, I’ll keep at it!
July 4, 2024 @ 5:33 pm
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!