EDITOR ’ S LETTER by Andrea Blanch
“ A photograph is a secret about a secret , the more it tells you the less you know .” -Diane Arbus
This is the raison d ’ être for Enigma . I was not prepared to do an editor ’ s letter for this issue since I felt given the theme , enigma , less is more . Each artist in this issue was enigmatic in their own way , and that was for the audience to figure out for themselves . But then I changed my mind , since I am an enigma . A secret within a secret , a skeleton in the closet , a decaying body in a field of leaves , the images in Sally Mann ’ s Body Farm series give away nothing but say everything . The central figure of a photo , the bones of a once living being glare out at you , almost indistinguishable from the foliage beneath , a log echoing femur , another corpse fading into the leaves . It is not a telling image , no hints given that you ’ re looking at a university ’ s anthropological study of decomposition , but what you get is a sense of the ethereal , of the deep connection between us and nature , an enigmatic commentary on the earth we all return to . What is it about the enigmatic that attracts us , that draws our attention ? Why is it so embedded into our nature to seek out the mysterious , unfamiliar , strange oddities that we assign meaning to ? An enigma sparks the imagination , excites that part of us obsessed with puzzles . While traveling to the hometowns of the artists who inspired him , John MacLean went on a journey in his Hometown series to address the age-old question of influence , how artists cannot escape it but why would we want to ? Embracing artistic influences and learning from them , re-evaluating them , creating something new from them , this is what he explored as he photographed in the likeness of others . A red seatbelt caught in a car door , a modern symbol of the technology that dominates our lives , color that pops off the page in typical William Eggleston fashion , MacLean turns the photographer ’ s style into his own . Instead of producing work that derived from outside influences , Guy Bourdin created mysterious , groundbreaking fashion photographs that elevated fashion to fine art through narrative compositions that left the mind to fill in the blanks , to finish the story of a chalk-line and a pair of bright pink heels tossed under a car , legs strolling through a scene cut off at the knees . There is nothing more intriguing than an enigmatic perspective of the human body . James Laxton ’ s beautiful , surrealist , dreamy work as the cinematographer on Moonlight , delves into the emotional journey of his characters while showing the audience how film can ignite an imagination just as still photography could . Andy Warhol uses a unique element of sex appeal when he created flirtatious silkscreen prints to portray mysterious pairs of lips . Each image in his Lips series pushes toward the enigmatic with the lack of identifiable mouths despite the famous faces they are pulled from . As the guest curator for the magazine , Alexander Montague-Sparey delves into the many ways photographers can embody an enigma with their varying skills , methods of creations , and the way the audience interacts with the artists ’ works . There is a dynamic between the photographer , their creative process , and the audience that breeds room for an enigmatic relationship because photography as an art is able to reach far past its boundaries as a medium . In the series Eyes , Sebastiaan Bremer pushes past the medium with his very personal process of drawing and painting over his own photographs , when he uses prints from Bill Brandt . By drawing circular and linear markings over the fine details of the eyes within the pictures , Bremer creates a perplexing filter of his own to create a piece that holds more moments in time and a deep spirituality . Daido Moriyama challenges the art form of photography using Bure Boke , his shake-no focus , shooting style . Moriyama dissects photography in order to capitalize on the organic nature of spontaneous shooting with a compact camera while examining the conundrum of making deconstructed art . The non-photographer-photographer is known for breaking boundaries , and unlike his imitators , exuding true uniqueness in his obscure artistic process . The enigmatic appears in all of these works in our issue , alluring , enticing , showing us something but forcing us to work for it , kicking our imagination into gear . I want to thank all of the artists for contributing to this issue , and for their patience .
John Maclean , Hometown of John Baldessari , National City , California . Courtesy of Flowers Gallery , London / New York .
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