Response to The Focus Interview: Lucas Blalock

The Focus Interview with Lucas Blalock mainly talks about photographic techniques applied in Blalock’s works and his opinion towards the relationship between photography and painting and the development of photography. He regards steps from shooting to Photoshop as “stages of production” which “translates” the meaning of photos. By using technologies of picture-making in a unique way, he blends real and false together, which was initially inspired by Godard. Photography to him is to some extent mirroring painting, the development of which should be focused on not only the information in each photograph, but also in the production process itself.

Such a conversation on the art of photography reminds me of Plato’s Ion, which concludes that artists gain their inspiration from gods and they themselves actually have no knowledge of arts. Yet, from this article, I see Blalock’s passion and endless creative ideas in the production of art works. He values every step in art production and is curious enough for innovative attempts, no matter how the rules are currently set. So Blalock could never be considered as a man without knowledge of photography. The advance of technology has been integrated into his own work, from which he assumes that the making of a photo will matter a great deal in the future development of photography. I admire him because he is an artist who embraces change and puts enthusiasm and an analytical mind into photography.