Dear Tali, 14/10

Tali is a fictional character. She is a visual artist interested in filmmaking, still in secondary school in her mid-late teens. As Tali explores the world with fresh eyes, my own eyes are opened to new ideas and trends. Tali has grown up in a Christian family and as Christian myself, I naturally want to encourage her to expand her faith as she expands her understanding of the world through photography, filmmaking, and art in general. As you might guess, Tali is based on a few real friends of mine, about 20 years my junior.

Dear Tali,

Thanks for the link to all this Lomo (and Holga camera) stuff. I think the idea of ‘getting back to the roots’ of photography – which is what it all seems to be about – is really interesting.

It reminds me of how I first fell in love with photography when I was about 10. I built a pinhole camera and played darkroom magic, processing everything in our shower late into the night. So I’m fascinated by some of these ‘lomographic’ images that return to this rudimentary style. The funny thing is, though, it was actually digital cameras which made me fall in love with stills in recent years. I guess digital is taboo in your circles, yes?!

In the moving image realm, have you heard about Dogme filmmaking? There’s another ‘return to roots’ movement you should look into. Then there’s this more recent Lego animation craze. Fantastic concepts and stories told with the most basic techniques.

For me, what I find MOST interesting is the question of what we do with it all.
And for me particularly, what does it mean to be a Christian artist?
How does this search for new modes and styles both REFLECT our unending search for real expression (or "inexhaustible meditation" as Flaus says) on the one hand,
and cause it to ILLUMINATE the world to a more complete image of Christ,
on the other?

That's my creative quest!

Rich

PS. Have you heard about these ‘red’ cameras? Unlike the Lomo philosophy, this is all about the boys chasing bigger & better toys. The paradox is, I think I’m one of them too!