The Minimalist Vision of John Kosmopoulos

THE MINIMALIST VISION OF JOHN KOSMOPOULOS

Prelude to Silence I (Series) ©John Kosmopoulos

I have the great pleasure to introduce John Kosmopoulos, a minimalist architecture and landscape photographer I admire and follow for many years. But, besides photography, John is also a keen writer and his blog is a source of inspiration for photographers around the globe. He focuses on the psychology of photography and the artist’s creative process in fine art photography. I decided to take advantage of this latter capacity, when I asked him to write an extended introduction to his concept of “Oramaku”.

Without any more interruptions from me, I let you enjoy his interesting views on vision and aesthetics in minimalist photography.

Thank you George for your invitation to be a featured artist on your website. I am honoured to be included in such great company with the likes of Hengki Koentjoro, Nathan Wirth and Yucel Basoglu. All these photographers, along with yourself, offer something quite captivating in their photography.

After several conversations with you about the nature of this feature and whether a traditional or non-traditional interview would be something interesting for your readers, we decided to share an adapted excerpt from some of my musings about photography as it relates to a type of “minimalism” that I have come to appreciate practicing and talking about over the years that I have called “Oramaku”. This feature is a “second introduction” of sorts as those of you who may find merit in what I have to say may find a link to a full article on the subject at the end.

As this is a blog about black and white photography, I have offered several of my landscape photos for this feature. This approach is easily transferable to colour photography and, as you will read, multiple subjects and genres.

Centre Island Bridge, Toronto (Infrared Study) ©John Kosmopoulos

ON “VISION” & ART PHOTOGRAPHY Many photographers have spoken about “Vision” in photography and Art throughout history in various ways. I, like many other photographers, do not believe in a singularity or ubiquity of vision. In my opinion, artistic creativity is much more personal and multidimensional. In fact, the word and its meaning may not be sufficient enough to encompass the spectrum of artistic experiences and expressions. When photographs all start to become parallel in purpose and outcome, is that visual style, “template” vision, or even “anti-vision”? If there seems to be a “fine art” method, is it self-defined or group-defined? I don’t know the answers to these questions entirely (and perhaps it’s not for me to decide) but the words “vision” and “fine art” themselves seem to have lost their value in some ways and may need to be reconsidered for us to advance our art. This may or may not be a bold statement to you but I know many photographers who have similar questions, not out of criticism, but in the spirit of artistic evolution, I think it is an interesting conversation to have with our fellow photographers along with what constitutes a “finer art” in photography. After all, trees grow with both rain and sunshine.

When I was asked about how I would describe my overall photographic vision years ago in a previous interview, my answer was the following: “the pursuance of an exquisite enlightenment with the practice of an insightful imagination”. It was a spontaneous almost Proustian-like alliteration of ideas at the time but I have since delved much deeper into its practical meaning as I do feel this unabated curiosity and almost spiritual connection to subjects that spark my inspiration as a photographer. My initial answer was meant to transform my approach to photography. It was also meant to further consider the striking power of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s words, translated from the French here, in a new and exciting way for me:

“To take photographs is to hold one's breathe when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy. To take photographs means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye, and one's heart on the same axis.” (The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers)

Unison (Dubai Desert) ©John Kosmopoulos

To better grasp its meaning (and some of the questions posed in my introductory paragraph), I have had a version of this quote on my website in the original French as a reminder to myself to always strive for something profound in what I do in my art. Perhaps it is also another way to consider the idea of “pure photography” (free of derivation from other traditional art forms like painting, drawing, etc.) embraced by the Group f/64 (Twentieth Century San Francisco photographers that included the likes of Ansel Adams) as an “informed photography” (I mean it as an understanding of the full potential of this artistic and technological medium) moving towards rather than starting with a state of underived “purity”. After all, some of the Old Masters may have used a “camera obscura” to achieve their realistic representations and painters often use photographs to paint compositions.

Photography has also “informed” other art forms. Many writers have attempted to consider “Photography” in its own context (e.g., Susan Sontag’s polemic, “On Photography”; Roland Barthes, “Camera Lucida”). But the achievement of such a “purity”, if such a thing may exist, may not be our ultimate destination after all. When photography is everywhere, when everyone is a photographer, when is it fine art? It is the value of photography as an ever- evolving discipline that I think we must cherish and not the selfies, Warholian “15 minutes of fame” or the gamification of photography (likes, hearts, etc.). We can learn from other art forms but I think we have to learn and practice Henri Cartier-Bresson’s words, in my humble opinion, with abandon to help better inform us in our photography in a self-reflective, self- inspired and even self-reinforcing way.

High Park, Toronto (Infrared Study Series) ©John Kosmopoulos

ORAMAKU: TOWARDS A MINDFUL MINIMALISM & FELT AESTHETICS Over the years, several photographers have expressed to me that they believed that the thematic essence of most of my photography seems to be rooted in a minimalistic style regardless of the intricate and abstracted elements inherent in some of my approaches to art photography across subjects. I tend to agree with this sentiment. In fact, I appreciated this analysis of my photography, so much so, that I began to explore the subjective and objective substance of my photography to piece together this atlas of metacreative imperatives to help me better explore what makes minimalistic photography so enticing to still the mind and allow for multisensory and metaphorical experiences. My initial constructs of what photographic vision is to me was a veritable synthesis of the integral and integrated ideas and practices (that I have written and spoken about in talks and with fellow photographers), namely Zen principles (Japanese aesthetics), aspects of neuroscientific theories on creativity (neuroaesthetics) and my own psychological framework of motivations for artistic eclecticism, experimentation and evolution in fine art photography (“felt aesthetic”). When you consider these three concepts, they also align with Cartier-Bresson’s “axis” on what photography is, and can be, in all its clarity and promise. I have since called this approach to minimalism, “The Art of Oramaku”.

“Oramaku” (or “Orama-ku”) is a hybrid or fusion of the words “orama”, which is Greek for “vision”, and the word “haiku”, which is Japanese for “short poem”. In essence, it is a way of bridging Western and Eastern traditions of encapsulated beauty and wonderment about the natural world and built environment along with linking subjective and objective theories on art. This concept fully embraces the art of minimalism across photographic genres including abstracts, architecture, flowers, landscapes or snowscapes while considering how this alignment of aesthetic values informs our practice. It also includes a complimentary alignment on this axis that speaks to a transient synthesis of our own evolving beliefs about photography.

ON CONNECTING THE INVISIBLE & VISIBLE DOTS You may be asking how this form of minimalism is different than what you observe in some photos. There is certainly a connection, but it is the way we consider the incitation, intention, intimacy, interactions and even interpretation of such approaches that may be different.

As a means of providing some further insight into the various aesthetic approaches and this art of minimalism, I have explored each of these approaches independently and considered their alignment with Henri Cartier-Bresson’s eye-mind-heart connection and various photographers that I admire. I have explored the complex simplicity of “less is more” in Zen practices by focusing on “Wabi-Sabi” and its beneficial role in photography. I have also delved into neuroaesthetic principles with a special emphasis on the “Peak Shift Effect” (something I am quite familiar with in my own work), and its workings in abstracts and long exposure photography. To provide further context, I have also framed these aesthetic approaches in light of a psychological framework of motivations based on the feeling of being immersed in and inspired by something intellectually and imaginatively beautiful in what makes impactful art for the artist and observer.

As these topics can seem technical at times, I have expanded on each of them in a longer article. For those interested, I invite your readers to explore these musings more by considering the questions posed in this adapted excerpt and in my longer article for their own progression as artists. They have certainly helped me along the way. Thank you once again, George, for a chance to introduce your readers to my images and imagination. I hope they will find it useful.

Thank you John for your contribution to “Inspirations”. It is and inspiring article and I have very much enjoyed reading it. Read more on the theme or explore John’s work: “The Art Of Oramaku” – Silver Zen Photography