The Photographic Oeuvre of Cameron Woodall:
Spirituality, Symbolism, Visual Narratives, and the Interpretive Role of the Viewer









Cameron Woodall (b. 1981) is a contemporary artist-photographer who has refrained from associating himself with any particular artistic style or movement, past or present. Why has he so emphatically disavowed such categorization, such art-historical labels? Certainly, Woodall is primarily an artist-photographer; however, he has developed his oeuvre through exposure to and experimentation with a wide variety of means. His many influences and sources of inspiration range from fine art and photography to literary and philosophical sources. Woodall’s fine art muses include the great Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) and the innovative Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). According to Woodall:
The arts are not merely symbolic language but point to a spiritual reality that is complementary to a physical one. My art is a meditation on self and the connection to the mystical, in essence a microcosm of the macrocosm. My latest work is an interpretive analysis of the hero’s journey, how it has changed and stayed the same throughout history, but more importantly, how the stories can be applied to every life story…There is an implied narrative within this work because I have used personal experiences and applied these to literary formulas. There is a truth to myths…and in belief, realities can be found.
Woodall’s photographic inspiration derives from the diverse oeuvres of the contemporary photographers Vincent Serbin (b. 1951), Joel-Peter Witkin (b. 1939), and Don Gregorio Antón (b. 1976). In addition, Woodall avidly reads such great philosophers as Carl Jung (1875-1961), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). Essentially, Woodall’s artistic processes and production may be regarded as the result of this amalgamation of intellectual stimulation and artistic experimentation. Woodall is a photographic artist who is attempting to articulate a theory of truth, reality, and belief. Rather than categorizing his work by style or technique, he views himself as a “soothsayer-alchemist,” experimenting through his art. Thus, both the artist and the viewer may experience the spiritual, symbolic, and narrative journey through Woodall’s photographic oeuvre. Through a discussion and analysis of several of Woodall’s works, I hope to establish that his quest for metaphysical insight via spiritual, symbolic, and narrative realms is not simply a private quest; but it is a quest that his viewers and critics will find enlightening, challenging, and personally valuable.
Woodall, as the current artist-photographer and “myth-maker,” regards his early work as largely “a learning experience.”
[Although] I still tend to experiment a lot and I teach myself new things about the medium every time I begin a piece. But my early work taught me that no one can tell me that what I am doing is wrong, it is my art, and no one else can do it…I think that I try to understand my own perception based on others’. I take those things that I agree with and bash them against those that I don't agree with and see what I get.
In addition to photography, Woodall has also indulged in ceramics, sculpture, and drawing:
I have done them all, though I was trained by painters and ceramicists. I have been doing some form of art since I was 6. I got my minors in undergrad in drawing and sculpture and still tend to use both. I loved my printmaking class with Robert Brown. I am now drawing quite a bit and my Hero's Journey work was basically mixed media. Installation, painting, drawing—all with a photography base. It goes back to that war of subjectivity in an object world.
His modus operendi has not changed significantly, and is also quite unusual. His works are each a quest for self-discovery as well as a quest for metaphysical contemplation. For Woodall, every “artist is a mythmaker” and he himself is a self-acknowledged “soothsayer-alchemist.” First, Woodall begins the creation process by drawing on his extensive knowledge of world myths, religions, theories, and cultures:
[from that vantage point] I make my own cosmology then choose the apex of the story and draw it. I draw it out in order to both realize what had been gestating as an idea and to utilize as a sketch. After working and reworking the design to highlight the points of the story and aesthetics I take that sketch into the studio.
Woodall uses the camera as a tool to document his visual narratives. Since the camera is merely a machine, it can only “see what I point it at and only I can tell it what to see.” The camera presents a personal point of view with an impersonal objectivity. Woodall purposefully constructs simple tableaux and stage-like settings with the intention of focusing on the energy of light, the body, and the narrative. This ritual-like process allow Woodall to be one of the “myth-makers” who represent their personal vision of reality through their oeuvres. In addition, Woodall thinks of the photograph as “both a window and a mirror. We can see it as an object unto itself, we can see the thing it portrays, or we can see ourselves looking at it. As Plotonius stated, the perceptible world signifies an imperceptible one.”
In the Le Celle series (figs. 2 and 3), the spiritual theme in Woodall’s oeuvre is powerful and profound, yet subtle. In the context of this paper, the term “spirituality” may be applied to anything that involves or relates to the human spirit or soul as opposed to physical and material things. Woodall ponders, “What is a spirit? It cannot be weighed, measured, or quantified. Can it therefore have a definition? Can a person have a spiritual experience?” In order to document a Capuchin monastery in Italy in his Le Celle series, Woodall spent many hours over the course of three months simply observing the rhythmic pattern of events as they unfolded within the monastery. Prior to his encounter with the Capuchins, Woodall usually worked in a style of digital photomontage he calls “metaphysical surrealism.” Nevertheless, Woodall does not regard the Le Celle series as a departure from his earlier work, but as a “logical conclusion.” In fact, the series helped the artist to define still further his developing theory “that belief can change reality and truth is subjective.” Although Woodall does not seek to define what or where a spirit is, he describes it “as energy and awe, the essence of life, found in connections and relationships, the spark of love and bliss. A person who contends that the physical world is the only reality must therefore not believe in thought or emotion.” Like Woodall, the artist-photographer Don Gregorio Antón also seeks to visually depict spiritual experiences and the spiritual realm in his oeuvre. According to Woodall, Antón “searches the depths of consciousness leaving us awed at magic manifested…Through his use of personal myth we find the connection between subjective knowledge and shared emotion. The final pieces are neither questions nor answers but are artifacts of memory and experience.” As in Antón’s The Rules of Tragedy and The Arc of Memory (figs. 4 and 5), the sensation of serenity and timelessness in the Le Celle series shows the viewer the peace and satisfaction that the spiritual journey can bring. Neither artist-photographer attempts to proselytize the viewer by espousing a particular religious belief system. Nonetheless, Antón’s oeuvre has far more mystical implications. Through his works, Antón seeks to create imagery “to help navigate and formulate my right to see [and] to accommodate the positioning of my soul in the world.” He then hopes to identify and isolate the small amount of “reality” that obscures perception so that he can guide and teach his viewers as they ponder his works. Though Antón’s intentions may be good, eradicating the viewer’s culture and identity is hazardous at best. What substitutes for the viewer’s culture and identity can he offer? By “purifying” his work of overt cultural associations, Antón has also “purified” his work of visual narrative or symbology that a viewer needs to adequately “read” a work. Because Antón “[seeks] to understand, rather than to be understood,” there are very few viewers who are able to appreciate and understand the full import of his oeuvre. Woodall emphatically rebukes this approach:
I am so tired of Artists who do not take responsibility for ideas. Or who can only attack other ideas instead of understanding or proposing new perspectives. In a way I understand that they don't want to be authoritarian but they happen to be the author of the work.
The sharp value contrasts and oftentimes ambiguous abstract shapes in both Woodall’s Le Celle series and Antón’s The Rules of Tragedy and The Arc of Memory are proclaiming to the viewer the universality and necessity of the spiritual journey. In defending Antón’s philosophy, Woodall is also defending his own:
These mystical experiences are times of revelation and insight. They are a part of being spiritual. Don Anton says he doesn’t talk about mysticism. But he does believe that the mystical appears around us all the time and it is usually explained away. He also talks about gaining knowledge, connections and relationships, and understanding oneself and the world.
Finally, although Woodall shot the Le Celle series at a Capuchin monastery in Italy, the religious specificity of the location is ambiguously portrayed to allow the viewer to chose his or her own spirituality. In Woodall’s oeuvre, he is primarily seeking to articulate “a theory of truth, reality, and belief…and [he uses his] art as a way to express [his] findings.” Again, Woodall has become the metaphysical soothsayer-alchemist as well as an artist-photographer. As he ponders these questions, he is also inviting the viewer to ask and reflect: “Is this a spiritual experience? Or is this life? I contend that depending on how one understands self and defines spirit it can be both.”
For Woodall, St. Quixote (fig. 6) is symbolic of the literary character Don Quixote, who is simultaneously a hero and an antihero. In fact, St. Quixote is Woodall’s self-portrait. As he explains:
A lot of my influences are literary, either fiction, myths, legends, or religions. Like the self-portrait as Don Quixote. I am Don Quixote! A man whose belief becomes reality. A man who was driven mad by books. A hero/anti-hero Sisyphus type. Comic and tragic. A person who is ready to take on life but doesn't have the right tools to do so.
Woodall’s St. Quixote is a study of a person whose erroneous, potentially self-destructive perceptions of the world must either change or that person will indubitably suffer the consequences of his misconceptions: “It is interesting to think of it in the way of self sacrifice for enlightenment, which is true. Or at least an understanding of self and casting off of misconceptions, a trial by fire often proves to yourself what resources you truly hold. And my desire for knowledge is insatiable, like the curious cat.”
St. Quixote is also an amalgamation of Don Quiote and St. George, symbolizing a person whose beliefs and perceptions have, or may yet become, reality. The saint has fashioned his own dragon out of book pages from Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote and his imagination.
The next major phase in the journey is that of revelation. I use Miguel Cervantes’ character Don Quixote to portray this stage. This literary hero is embodied here as a self-portrait. Most of my works are self-portraits but in this case it is more direct, because of my empathy for this character. I originally chose photography because of is connections to reality and my respect for the craft of Durer. I saw in photography the potential to make real what was in sketch form. Throughout my photographic career I had been taught to respect the integrity of the print surface, to print in a way to epitomize beauty and reflect reality. My revelation is that none of this is law. I am foremost an artist. As an artist I must choose how best to represent my reality. The Don knew this. He would not accept chivalry’s defeat, as I will not accept the prevailing post-stucturalist theories and nihilism. The Don believed in his inner truth so much that it became outer reality. He is the perfect example of how Truth can come from Belief, and how Reality can be neither or both...This image recalls the former images of St. George who was originally a pre-Christian dragon slayer. Pseudo-sexual in its connotations, I have pierced the beast that is mirror and object. The photograph itself is stained using hydro chromium toner, then wiped off. Part of the mirror like quality remains but mostly it is a shadow of its former luminous reflectance. I associate the piece to the old cast off book in likeness and color, they are both antiquated symbols no longer used, read, or understood by the masses. My work is largely based on things I have studied or observed. Because of the conscious intellectual involvement inherent within my work my peers are unable to connect to my reality. The Don had a problem very similar to this.
Even though the monster is imaginary, the saint is still badly equipped to do battle with any foe. Therefore, in Woodall’s St. Quixote, the St. George-Don Quixote personage also symbolizes, or personifies, the person who is willing to tackle a difficult task, but who is ill-equipped to do so. Like the skeletal brontosaurus in Vincent Serbin’s Metaphors of Greatness (fig. 7), Woodall’s saint does not seem to notice his weakness and vulnerability. Finally, St. Quixote is the symbolic exploration of the artist’s epistemological questions that the viewer may or may not venture with the artist. Regardless of whether the viewer is willing to consciously acknowledge Woodall’s epistemological theorizing, the symbology remains:
So words are less ambiguous than images, but are themselves images with a definition (this is why I love the Renaissance so much, every symbol had a definition). All of my symbols are a conglomeration of many of either the same idea with different symbols or the same symbol with different definitions…You read a work of art like a book.
Whether the symbols in St. Quixote and Metaphors of Greatness are “read” as intrinsic or extrinsic, they raise issues of epistemology in both the artist’s and the viewer’s minds.
In Fool’s Journey (fig. 8), the strong visual narrative of the subject matter invites the viewer to project himself or herself into the narrative. Fool’s Journey addresses but does not attempt to answer ultimately unanswerable metaphysical questions, as such, though the artist and the viewer may freely “discuss” these questions. This work may be Woodall’s most recent visualization of his theory of truth, reality, and belief:
I hunger for knowledge and through experience seek to gain spiritual insight. I use Belief as it manifests itself within Reality through perception and myth to understand my world and my spirit. These absolutes can be perceived through our ideals and actions. The symbols and stories change depending on culture or individual experience but the universal is glimpsed through these.
The text above the head of the young man is from the Tarot. As it ominously “hangs over his head,” the Tarot is exercising its control over the man; assumedly, the man will be doomed to search indefinitely for what he may already possess. In this work, as in St. Quixote, the unfortunate fool is the victim of his own self-inflicted misconceptions. Joel-Peter Witkin’s The Fool, Budapest (fig. 9) also explores the themes of being a fool and self-victimization; however, Witkin’s “images of the human condition” are far more disturbing and controversial. Like Woodall, Witkin also examines spirituality and how it impacts the physical world; however, unlike Woodall, Witkin explores the nature of spirituality through people who are often cast aside by society, including hermaphrodites, amputees, carcases, people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and "any living myth . . . anyone bearing the wounds of Christ.” While Woodall invites his viewers to “step into the shoes” of the characters he creates, Witkins seeks to push back the culturally accepted boundaries of “normalcy and decency” and exploits the “shock value” of his subject matter.
In Fool’s Journey, the ambiguous landscape, incomprehensible text, and uncertain static figure in Fool’s Journey invite the viewer to remember or to imagine a similar journey or narrative. In addition, the viewer is able to project himself or herself into the work easily since the figure’s face is largely obscured from view. As human beings, we are fascinated by the faces of other human beings; therefore, the absence of a “readable” face allows the viewer to self-project.
Lazlo Maholy-Nagy said that photography has the ability to illuminate realities that cannot be perceived by the senses alone. The black and white print is both removed from reality and connected to the memory of a nostalgic past…I recall walking through museums seeing ancient artifacts and wanting to posses them and understand them. I want my photographs to evoke the same response in other people. The problem in art’s significance in the modern world is that it has been transformed from a sacred activity to an activity of artifact production. My working method, however, still holds the residue of awe and experimentation while I struggle with the rigidity of ritual storytelling.
Like, St. Quixote, the visual narrative in Fool’s Journey is condemning those who embark on a journey with inadequate provisions and knowledge. This theme is also present in Serbin’s Metaphors of Greatness as well as in Antón’s The Rules of Tragedy and The Arc of Memory. So, is the viewer meant to understand that the unknown or any new experience in life is to be feared and avoided at all cost? Certainly not. The remedy for “fools” who would embark on a journey without the necessary provisions and precautions is education, preparation, and self-knowledge. Though these artists ask the universally-asked metaphysical questions in their oeuvres, they too are still searching for the answers:
I want to know if there is a higher reality, and if so, how can we know it? I have always doubted the existence of this greater plane and that is why I first sought to learn about it. Rudolf Steiner proposed that the spiritual world is accessible by means of enhanced powers of thinking and result in a consciousness of self. Wanting to know the unknowable, yearning to break loose from corporeality, I used other people’s explanations and understandings. I then noticed similarities and connections within different cultures and religions. The more I studied, the more I was fascinated by their stories and consequently begin to understand more about myself. I recognized my own dreams and aspiration, fears and failures.
Through only a few works, Woodall’s quest for metaphysical enlightenment and personal fulfillment in his personal oeuvre may be shared by his viewers via his “artistic experiments” in spirituality, symbolism, and visual narratives. In the current post-modern era, American culture does not mandate that artists attempt to instruct or guide their viewers in any way; indeed, the culture seems to discourage any encoded message within art works. Nevertheless, the contemporary artist-photographers Cameron Woodall, Don Gregorio Antón, Joel-Peter Witken, and Vincent Serbin are each on a personal metaphysical quest that the searching, insightful viewer is invited to join. After interviewing Woodall at length and conducting extensive research, I have concluded that it is not only valid but mandatory in art works that artists explore their own psyches and life experiences in order to truly communicate with and instruct their viewers. In addition, Woodall’s positive viewpoint will hopefully influence the oeuvres of his fellow “myth-makers:”
Each person is a hero, together they make a society, but in turn this society makes them. Herbert Spencer agrees and says, “Before the great man can remake society, society must make him.” Nietzsche called for a Superman to change society, but I say it is Everyman that changes society. In this way every person can relate to the hero, because every person is a hero. All of my characters are tired yet stoic in their regard for the will to press on. The fool journeys into the unknown, John Henry struggles against it, and Don Quixote embodies it. These pieces are printed large in order to seem imposing and larger than life. This causes a quasi-sublime experience to capture the viewer. While traveling through Europe I found myself enraptured by the size and beauty of the murals of the Renaissance. I continue to look to these and to Baroque pieces for inspiration.


Furthermore, I believe that every artist may do this to a certain extent. Nevertheless, Cameron Woodall has more than adequately demonstrated that his photographic oeuvre exhibits profound metaphysical insight on both the private and public levels. He quite successfully endows his private quest upon his viewer via spiritual, symbolic, and narrative elements.

Hero's Journey

I hunger for knowledge and through experience seek to gain spiritual insight. I use Belief as it manifests itself within Reality through perception and myth to understand my world and my spirit. These absolutes can be perceived through our ideals and actions. The symbols and stories change depending on culture or individual experience but the universal is glimpsed through these. It is through the experience that we can know, not through dogma but through dialogue.
I work with myths and symbols. Using comparative mythology, I analyze stories of different cultures and find the paradigm within, its essential elements and recurring themes and motifs. I then create my own story based on archetypes and the amalgamation of the original story. The archetype in this instance is the source of all variations. It is the essential quality of the myth, meaning without it the myth could not or would not exist (Bragdon 139). Similarly, I employ this method with the symbols of these cultures, because, I believe, as does Bertrand Russell, that symbols illuminate the unknown (Dilley 46). I must research each culture to understand the context of the symbols before I imbue them with my own meaning. A symbol is not a copy of reality but an impression of a greater reality, greater because it is more than the obvious, not better. It must lay claim to a kind of truth. The image is a symbol when implied meaning is greater than the obvious and immediate meaning (Jung 20).
The arts are not merely symbolic language but point to a spiritual reality that is complementary to a physical one (Howard 26). My art is a meditation on self and the connection to the mystical, in essence a microcosm of the macrocosm. This latest work is an interpretive analysis of the hero’s journey, how it has changed and stayed the same throughout history, but more importantly, how the stories can be applied to every life story. In fact, I have utilized my experience of graduate studies and applied the formula of these religious epics. There is an implied narrative within this work because I have used personal experiences and applied these to literary formulas. There is a truth to myths… and in belief, realities can be found.
Thomas Carlyle said, “Heroes see through the appearance of things into the reality of things” (Carlyle 55). I do this with my art. I think that all persons live through the journey of the hero. It is a myth that is still applicable even if the embodiment of the myth is not. The inflection is cultural, the themes are timeless.
In my philosophic studies I have been drawn to questions of metaphysics and epistemology. I want to know if there is a higher reality, and if so, how can we know it. I have always doubted the existence of this greater plane and that is why I first sought to learn about it. Rudolf Steiner proposed that the spiritual world is accessible by means of enhanced powers of thinking and result in a consciousness of self (James, 233). Wanting to know the unknowable, yearning to break loose from corporeality, I used other people’s explanations and understandings. I then noticed similarities and connections within different cultures and religions. The more I studied, the more I was fascinated by their stories and consequently begin to understand more about myself. I recognized my own dreams and aspiration, fears and failures.
This connection is what makes the myth continue in life and history I have found that these myths are a microcosmic paradigm. They explain ourselves to us. Through meditation and analysis we can understand that. Similar to Carl Jung’s collective unconscious, we share the ideas, not that the ideas are inherited but that the possibility of these ideas are (Jung 67, 69). I hope to communicate these ideas in the final piece.
After comprehending this, I began to utilize the cross-cultural connections. The artist is a mythmaker; I make my own cosmology then choose the apex of the story and draw it. I draw it out in order to both realize what had been gestating as an idea and to utilize as a sketch. After working and reworking the design to highlight the points of the story and aesthetics I take that sketch into the studio.
I use the camera as a tool to document my stories. The camera is a machine. It sees what I point it at and only I can tell it what to see. The camera presents a personal point of view with an impersonal objectivity. I make very simple tableaux and stage like settings with the intention of focusing on the energy of light, the body, and the narrative. This is how I represent reality through the photograph.
The photograph is both a window and a mirror. We can see it as an object unto itself, we can see the thing it portrays, or we can see ourselves looking at it. Plotonius stated that the perceptible world signifies an imperceptible one (Dilley 65). Lazlo Maholy-Nagy said that photography has the ability to illuminate realities that cannot be perceived by the senses alone (Dilley 15). The black and white print is both removed from reality and connected to the memory of a nostalgic past. By selective toning and degrading the image by faux wear and tear I further compliment this nostalgia for the past. I recall walking through museums seeing ancient artifacts and wanting to posses them and understand them. I want my photographs to evoke the same response in other people. The problem in art’s significance in the modern world is that it has been transformed from a sacred activity to an activity of artifact production (Highwater 19). My working method, however, still holds the residue of awe and experimentation while I struggle with the rigidity of ritual storytelling.
After exposure I use the photograph as a text. Through subtractive and additive methods I manipulate the image. This signifies further subjectivity; it invites projections and fetish and lends an amount of relationship and meaning. These manipulations are sometimes part intuitive and other times are part of the initial sketch. They parallel how I understand the change of symbols. It is messy and allows slippage through translation and interpretation. According to Carl Jung there are two categories of fetish; both are projections of self onto an unknown. One is passive and automatic the other is active and relies on empathy. I provoke both fetish responses by using the human figure and abstract symbols then minimal yet powerful stage lighting and overlaying evocative textures. By adding texture and breaking the surface of the print I am subverting the viewers recognition of reality. This is done because realistic photography loses its intellectual impact when the viewer is overly familiar with the subject and reacts more to its subject than the art object (Dilley 20).
I now know that the symbols of yesterdays can no longer help us to articulate the reality we find ourselves in. It is this failure of communicative symbols in a society with corroded myths and fallen heroes I find myself confronted by on a day-to-day basis (Bragdon 153). But I have to dig up the past and learn from them before I can begin to make my own future. After intensive study of myths throughout different cultures I decided on narrowing down my field of interest for the purpose of representation in photography. The hero seemed to be the most tangible of myths and the most predominate. For this reason he was chosen rather than gods or monsters or other possibilities.
Joseph Campbell has written extensively on the subject of comparative mythology and I frequently employ his thoughts. Of his stages of the hero’s journey I have included all but one, because I found myself confronted by all but this one. This is after all my own personal cosmology reflecting the universality of myth. In a way Campbell states that the hero’s journey is a paradigm of human activity.
In his stages we find that there is a call to action, a refusal or acceptance, the departure, initiation, and return or failure (Campbell ix). The hero must venture beyond the commonplace, experience a revelation, then transform it into expressive myths. These metaphors of truth allow us to know things we other wise could never know. If experience were the base metal and the myth gold the hero mythmakers would be the alchemists. At times the artist is this hero-mythmaker-alchemist, taking experiences and ideas and trapping them in precious material form
In my work, I begin with the journey of the fool, called to action by a winged female. The fool in Tarot represents the man who journeys forever, searches forever, and never finds what he is looking for. All the while the answers he seeks are contained within the bag that he carries, yet he never stops to look. “The kingdom of heaven is within you and all around you,” says Jesus in the apocryphal Gospel of St. Thomas. I must agree with this but it is only after the journey that you return to the place where you began and know it for the first time (Elliot 138-145). The fool, however, journeys into the unknown, never to return or even rest. I saw myself in him upon reflection of how I began my journey. I have the fool posed here in direct relation to Michelangelo’s David. In this instance David has seen Goliath and is preparing to decisively take action. He has already determined his course of action and is in the process of following through. He is filled with determination and fortitude. Here we see the fool in the same act of recognizing his direction, slinging his bag over his shoulder, and beginning his journey, thereafter perpetually stuck in this beginning. I have portrayed the fool in the style of Richard Avedon to facilitate a dialogue on the possibility of expression in straight photography. This base of the photograph, being simple and direct, is then manipulated to further a conceptual understanding of the piece.
The winged messenger has been a pivotal catalyst since the first civilizations. Egyptian, Sumerian, and Persian religions all knew them as the influencers of great deeds. Norse and Celtic peoples knew them as agents of a greater being. I have stained each of the female images to show a corrupted power. A misguided ideal, nonetheless powerful in its own right, but the triangular form of each points down not up. In classical society women were seen as being connected to the earth and bound to emotion and worldly knowledge. The man is guided through the world by these winged avatars that can teach him only from their perspective. I have stated before that I see the photograph as a window. I use it here as a stage as well. “All the world’s a stage… and one man in his time plays many parts…” (Shakespeare, 2.7. 149-152). The fool is Everyman, like the medieval miracle play, he is also Sisyphus. We all journey through life influenced for better or worse by our surroundings and intuitions.
The next major phase in the journey is that of revelation. I use Miguel Cervantes’ character Don Quixote to portray this stage. This literary hero is embodied here as a self-portrait. Most of my works are self-portraits but in this case it is more direct, because of my empathy for this character.
I originally chose photography because of is connections to reality and my respect for the craft of Durer. I saw in photography the potential to make real what was in sketch form. Throughout my photographic career I had been taught to respect the integrity of the print surface, to print in a way to epitomize beauty and reflect reality. My revelation is that none of this is law. I am foremost an artist. As an artist I must choose how best to represent my reality. The Don knew this. He would not accept chivalry’s defeat, as I will not accept the prevailing post-stucturalist theories and nihilism. The Don believed in his inner truth so much that it became outer reality. He is the perfect example of how Truth can come from Belief, and how Reality can be neither or both. Physicist Werner Heisenberg supports this by stating in his uncertainty principle that reality is malleable and transient therefore there are as many realities as there are views of reality (Highwater 23).
I believe Cervantes meant The Adventures of Don Quixote as a critique of the Spanish Inquisition. I use him as a foil for my revelation about the downfall of symbols and my struggle against their total corruption by post-industrial society. I utilize the symbol of the snake to represent my former assumptions and working methods. Lately I have been questioning the ideas of immanent versus transcendent truth in art. The snake is bound to the ground and has been a symbol for corporeal knowledge throughout history. This symbol in a convoluted way is connected to the myths of women throughout history, because of their ties to the earth and worldly knowledge. This image recalls the former images of St. George who was originally a pre-Christian dragon slayer. Pseudo sexual in its connotations, I have pierced the beast that is mirror and object. The photograph itself is stained using hydro chromium toner, then wiped off. Part of the mirror like quality remains but mostly it is a shadow of its former luminous reflectance. I associate the piece to the old cast off book in likeness and color, they are both antiquated symbols no longer used, read, or understood by the masses. My work is largely based on things I have studied or observed. Because of the conscious intellectual involvement inherent within my work my peers are unable to connect to my reality. The Don had a problem very similar to this.
In my last piece I do not represent the return but the failure of the return. Because of the corruption of our understanding of myths and its subsequent influence on our reading of symbols, I am unable to communicate effectively using an outdated mode of representation. I use the hero John Henry to represent this failure. Although connected closely to Sampson he is not religious in any way. He is a semi-modern American hero who struggled for human authority and fought against change and industrialization and, subsequently, died for it. The modern hero is an outcast, living on the fringes of society, amoral and selfish (Segal 8). This was always the basis of the hero myths, Greek and Roman especially. Sometime between then and now a new hero emerged and was the martyr for the people. I have cut up the negative to promote an idea of inner conflict and have cut the surface itself to manifest outward anxieties and show further violence in the name of progress and experimentation. This violence is common to symbols of martyrs. Like in the work of Joel-Peter Witkin, I use the scratches to signify this violence, but also my own frustration, and to provide an analogy for my investigation and “digging” for the Truth.
Behind John Henry a large swastika hangs, his body completing the lower arms of the symbol. It is not that of the Nazi party but of Iranian Zoroastrianism. It is a symbol of progress and good fortune. This symbol also replicates wings to show that the martyr was often a prophet and messenger. In the middle a Fibonacci spiral is portrayed, the mathematical ratio found in nature 1:1:2:3:5:8:13… In the Renaissance, an inordinate amount of time was spent on the question of how to “square the circle”. In short, the square represents the world or body and the circle a man’s soul. These men were questioning how the mind and body could work in harmony and if the spirit can indeed connect to the world. Similarly the yin/yang Buddhist symbol came about. But I am more interested in the acceptance of western thought. The Fibonacci spiral was proposed as proof that mathematics was found in nature and showed a plan in what was formerly thought to be chaos; therefore, combining nature and man, word and world and spirit. In the same way myth and art are a contact between concept and existence. I employ the spiral in this purpose as well but also to visually mimic the swastika and to breakdown and deconstruct deconstruction. Each torn up silver gelatin piece of paper makes a work of art unto itself, but the sum of the parts does not equal the whole. The places in between also have meaning. Without the space between we would not see the repetition of the Golden Mean or the final layout in triptych format. At this time Man was understood as the measure of all things, this was seen and proven in divine proportion (James, 60).
Each person is a hero, together they make a society, but in turn this society makes them. Herbert Spencer agrees and says, “Before the great man can remake society, society must make him.”(Study of Sociology 35). Nietzsche called for a Superman to change society, but I say it is Everyman that changes society. In this way every person can relate to the hero, because every person is a hero.
All of my characters are tired yet stoic in their regard for the will to press on. The fool journeys into the unknown, John Henry struggles against it, and Don Quixote embodies it. These pieces are printed large in order to seem imposing and larger than life. This causes a quasi-sublime experience to capture the viewer. While traveling through Europe I found myself enraptured by the size and beauty of the murals of the Renaissance. I continue to look to these and to Baroque pieces for inspiration.
The large pieces are less personal than the smaller ones. Each smaller piece has very personal implications hidden within the broad overall meanings. Loss, reactions to misandry, fear, and finally recognition and revelation; these themes underline the journey I have gone through in the past two years.
My work is a myth about me. Conversely, it is about Everyman as well. Because I render archetypes apparent, the viewers should recognize a piece of themselves in this story. Hopefully, that piece is both them and me.

You can see more of Mr. Anton's work at http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/anton/

Don Gregorio Anton

In a large, richly lavished palace in India four blind men were selected at random and taken to a specialized room within the palace. They were told that they were to enter this room one at a time and perceive as best they could what was in that room. They would then exit the room and tell the people on the other side what was in the room. The first blind man entered and walked into a large, immovable, rough textured surface. He walked around it and ran his hands up and down its sides and perceived that it was a tall and columned shaped object. He exited the room and pronounced that the thing inside was a tree. The next man walked into the room and was struck by leather like material. He grasped it as best he could but it continued to strike out at him. He could tell that it was long, slender, and flexible. He ran to the other side of the room and exited where in an exasperated tone said that he had been whipped by a bullwhip. The third man then entered and as he casually strolled around the room he brushed against a large plant like object, he was comforted by the movement of the air it produced and lingered awhile. He exited and said he was happy to pronounce that it was a luxurious fan inside the room. The last man, not hearing the other proclamations, but being fearful of what was to happen because of the length it had taken for his time to come, built up his courage and dashed into the room. At once he was struck in the breast by a sharp point, hard, solid, long, and curved. Falling to the ground he cowered and had to be led out of the room. As he propped himself across his guide he said that it was a majestic sword of great strength and warrior like qualities. Within this room was an enigma that changed every time it was perceived. It was an objective and universal being that had the ability to form into subjective consciousness. It was an elephant.
This parable was used by the Muslims to describe the beliefs of the Hindus. Later it was used by the Christians to explain the beliefs of the Muslims. It explained how a Universal God could be interpreted differently based on cultural and individual belief. This parable explores the question of metaphysics; what is it? And the problem of epistemology; how do you know? The point is that reality is an objective thing but can only be described through subjective interpretations after perception and translated through belief. These Truths are not dependant upon our beliefs or our perceptions of them, but can only be communicated in subjective ways since our senses and language is limited. This is why visual symbols are so important. They promote the reality of transcendence and immanent truth and help art and philosophy coexist. These symbols bring our spirit and world together into consciousness.
Using photography, Don Gregorio Anton searches the depths of consciousness leaving us awed at magic manifested. Charged with spiritual energy, his art is utilized to seek understanding of himself and his world. Through his use of personal myth we find the connection between subjective knowledge and shared emotion. The final pieces are neither questions nor answers but are artifacts of memory and experience.
What is a spirit? It cannot be weighed, measured, or quantified. Can it therefore have a definition? Can a person have a spiritual experience? I cannot define for you what or where a spirit is. I can describe it as energy and awe, the essence of life, found in connections and relationships, the spark of love and bliss. A person who contends that the physical world is the only reality must therefore not believe in thought or emotion. The discussion of the existence of a spiritual realm is a long one. It has been debated for as long as the history of philosophy. I say your answers to these questions depend on your life experience and directions of conscious thought.
The eastern philosophers describe a mystical experience as loosing ones self. The practitioners of most Eastern religions and philosophies believe that through meditation one can gain enlightenment and reach a nirvana or place of peace, where there is no ego or self. Western thought usually says that a mystical experience is gaining knowledge of the totality of being without that loss of self, a oneness with a divine power. William James said that it defies the attempt to define it, and that the mystical experience could only be a direct one. People must be able to find their own way to the mystical. He also expressed that it was not only comparable to conditions of emotion but those of knowledge as well. These mystical experiences are times of revelation and insight. They are a part of being spiritual. Don Anton says he doesn’t talk about mysticism. But he does believe that the mystical appears around us all the time and it is usually explained away. He also talks about gaining knowledge, connections and relationships, and understanding oneself and the world.
Is this a spiritual experience? Or is this life? I contend that depending on how one understands self and defines spirit it can be both. I also argue that the work of Don Anton is a record and product of a spiritual experience. He “dwells on the things that cause pain” and “the interconnectedness of all things”. In this way he is exploring himself and the relationships he has formed with his soul.
Epistemology is the study of how a person gains knowledge. Experience it seems is the answer. Either as a catalyst of remembering what is innate within the mind, or by observation and analysis, experience teaches us about us. Through this act of learning we operate in the world, forming connections and recognizing relationships. The conscious person will comprehend that what is seen makes them and how it is seen makes the world. “We are the world.” This comprehension and acceptance is a spiritual awakening; it is life. It is how Belief begins to make its way known in the world of reality and affects the Truth of experience, much like in the parable of the elephant.
“Art is the language of the spirit,” says Rene Huyghe. It is made of both knowledge and emotion, intuition and reason. It illuminates the darkness within the human consciousness and frees our creative urges. Don Anton explores the possibilities of the spirit and enhances our awareness of its existence. Through story and symbol we can glimpse the universal, even though their manifestations may change based upon experiences.
The world of objects and visual references signifies the world of thought and intuition. Does this mean that these worlds are separate or does this mean that they rely on one another? By understanding ourselves we can understand the universals. In a way, thought must be connected to object and experience. This microcosm of the macrocosm is reflected in Mr. Anton’s philosophy, that we must relearn how to see and observe, we must teach ourselves. Then we can understand our soul’s place within the world. But does art transcend this realm of objects? Sometimes it can push the understanding beyond the realm of the rational and transcend objectification. So when we recognize the universal principals within ourselves we are communing with the universal and ourselves. When viewers see themselves in a piece of art they are communing with that piece of themselves, participating in an “intimate discovery”. This happens when a person is “awe inspired, humbled, and perplexed” . This discovery is a dimension of that object, but at the same time transcends that object and joins thought and spirit. It is not based on other people’s definitions but defined by the way the person found it and understands it. It can then become a personal truth reflecting a Universal one.
Krishnamurti spoke of Truth as a “pathless land.” His speech to the Order of the Star, in which he disbands the organization, speaks of truth as a fragile thing that must come to a person on his or her own terms. He gives a parable that describes why it is so important that organizations do not claim to hold the truth unto themselves.
The devil and a man were walking down the street one day conversing and enjoying the afternoon. When the devil looked over he saw another man stop in his tracks and pick up something and put it in his pocket. This other man looked content and resumed his journey. The devil smiled at this and thought that this was going to be a good day for him. Seeing the devil so happy his companion inquired as to the cause of his pleasant disposition. The devil replied that he had seen a man find a piece of truth. Perplexed as to why this would make the devil happy rather than upset, the man asked as much. The devil’s response was that it was good for him because this man would take that piece of truth and organize it. Once organized it would cultivate followers and become the way. Once it was the way it could no longer be the truth. This was why it was good for the devil. “No organization can lead me to spirituality.” You can never follow someone to find the truth. It must be found in your own way.
The first priests were artists. These shamans, magic men, projected their hopes and fears into images, influencing great spirits to do their bidding through their act of creating. Modern artists are like these old shamans suggesting magic and having spiritual resonance. Artists tend to commune with the unknown and work with the unnamable. They must learn about it and describe it in their own way.
Eleanor Heartney says that in the Catholic Imagination there is a propensity to approach the world in a metaphoric way and use the body as a symbol for larger meanings. Don says that his catholic background has shown itself more in the form of longing. All of the work I have seen of Mr. Anton has to do with the body. It is usually in some sort of pain or ecstasy. And it reminds me of holy relics and religious paintings. Don Anton has a Catholic background and it is probably safe to assume that he follows the tendencies of that religion while independently creating his own cosmology or understanding of reality.
It is also common in the Native American community to mix both Christian symbols and indigenous ones. Don Anton is on a personal journey in search of understanding his spirit. I am sure he was surrounded by the Latino tradition of what has been termed “Magic Realism”. Magic Realism is a combination of this blending of symbols and the exposure of everyday miracles and grace. The artists working in this style try to encapsulate the subsistence of the soul by using symbols of the impossible or horrific.
Symbols function as a visual way to transcend obvious meaning. Their meanings transcend the common visual interpretation by both referencing themselves and another reality, either external or internal. Images become symbols when they fit that description, when it is no longer a copy of reality but an impression of a greater reality. The modern symbol can allude to meaning but because of the breakdown of communication in a post structural society symbols cannot denote meaning. In this type of society symbols are more of a representative, suggestive power than a factually accurate representation of reality. This usually leaves plenty of space for fetish projection and occupation for the viewer’s interpretation.
This symbolic reality is also understood in terms of myth. The symbols employed by myth serve to connect the mind and body, the universal and the singular. The archetype is the essential quality of a universal myth; it is what connects the singular expressions of myth to the underlying absolute. These archetypes are somewhat ambiguous in their factual meaning but serve as an indispensable attribute to the modern mythmaker. Don Anton is a mythmaker. By transcribing his personal points of views so ambiguously and pictorially he is fulfilling the same function as past storytellers, allowing our creativity and spiritual longing to connect within his photographs.
Formally Don Anton is working in a medium that has deep connections to reality. In his artist statement for Total Sum of Solitudes, Mr. Anton says, “…I can make no rationalization for process or material.” He says this so as not to “hamper discovery” and force a viewer to see the way he does. As a viewer I must take an authoritative stance on what I see in order to understand. Don Anton leaves space for occupation of a person’s ideals and fetish projections. He understands that art is not finished by the artist but must live a life of its own. The viewers must begin a dialogue with the work of art and base their understanding on what they have personally discovered within a piece. This discovery of self in art and myth is what makes them so alluring and therefore propagate and multiply in a cohesive society.
The camera is a machine that sees reality in an objective way. It is how it is used that introduces subjectivity. By probing metaphysics with art and observational tools one can understand more deeply the mysteries that surround us. The camera can either complete what we see or it can see for us. Photography deals with a very specific reality, one that is determined by the photographer. The problem is that viewers become accustomed to what they see everyday; therefore, they overlook the image as a symbol. The viewer must be tricked in a way so as to make him/her rethink how he/she observes the world and art. In the darkroom further manipulations are produced, signifying further subjectivity and provoking the invisible to become visible.
The use of the photographic image serves as a tool for showing a sense of the miraculous in the world. This manifestation of miracle is common to the catholic faith and is the cornerstone to the literary term Magic Realism. Art to Mr. Anton is another form of the artist that made it. His work deals with the meaning of self and the spirit within and around that self. I see the finished photograph as both window and mirror. As viewers we can see the thing it portrays, we can see it as an object, or we can see ourselves looking into it.
What he has learned in life through experience is implied through narrative, but only an intrapersonal reading of the image, as something other than a text can one comprehend this. He relinquishes all authority over the picture and forces the viewer to begin a dialogue with what they see. He wants his work to be non-ideological; he is not trying to promote any ideas through his art. He doesn’t want to be understood since this work is a product of his quest for understanding. One day it may be about a documentation of personal discoveries or manifestations of symbolic reality the next. He says that images are always teachers, changing and showing him what he needs to know that moment. They show him evidence of memory; things “lost and found”, the objects themselves are a residual act of thought.
In las reglas de tragedia Don Anton surrounds a human male figure with candles. It reminds me of the long traditions of memento mori in classical art and photography. The explicit reason being that memento mori was an image of a deceased loved one for the purposes of remembrance. This photograph also presents a scene reminiscent of a religious painting of a martyr after death. Although dead, it looks like there is motion blur. Could this signify the release of the soul after the death of the body? We also are presented with a dark halo above the man’s head. This further encourages a reference to a martyr either after death or in ecstasy. Within the photograph I now see an aura around the figure making the movement more pronounced and possibly referencing the spirit again.
The surrounding candles remind me of the practices of prayer and holy rights. A Catholic might light a candle in front of a statue of a holy person and say a prayer for a deceased loved one. Light is important in all religions and is connected to both God and thought. The circular form of light caused by the candles may be another clue as to the spiritual story that is going on here. In most cultures the circle is a symbol for spirit and its eternal quality.
The photograph itself has a soft focus but harsh quality of light. Is this a contradiction? Or maybe it shows that in tragedy the ends are harsh but romanticized. The title “The Rules Of Tragedy” seem to invoke an ominous end to a wonderful story. But Don may not want us to know the name; otherwise he would not present it in Spanish to a largely English speaking audience. Once again he doesn’t want to be understood. The piece functions as a device for meditation, a window or mirror.
Following the thoughts of Joseph Campbell this photo would represent the hero as a saint. But instead of the hero returning to present his findings after completing his journey this hero has died because of that journey. This unsuccessful return may represent the failure of the modern mythmaker in a society with corroded myths and symbols that no longer function as a way of communication. The hero as mythmaker is doomed to malfunction because we can no longer connect to each other in a post-industrialized society. Campbell begins his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces with a quote from Sigmund Freud. Freud writes, “The Truths contained in religious doctrines are after all so distorted and systematically disguised that the mass of humanity cannot recognize them as truth.” This is precisely why the hero as martyr becomes important in this discussion. It is why artists must find their own symbols and wrestle with the misunderstanding that will come from an uninformed audience. It is another reincarnation of the curse of Sibyl who was gifted the power of prophesy and insight but could either no longer be understood or was not believed when she spoke truths. She however was compelled to continue her speaking of truth finally writing books about the downfall of Rome.
For this reason and the reason that Don Anton does not want to preach or teach dogma, he does not care to be understood. He makes his work to find out about himself and possibly other people. He is not an iconoclast, he does not attack religious imagery, but he does not care to teach through his images, although he does call them teachers and he himself is a teacher. His memories are not the same as the viewers’ memories, but because of the human condition there is a connection of remembrance. The same can be said of his personal symbols. We must own our own truths and find our own paths to the spiritual. In this way Don Anton has produced artifacts of experiences. These experiences connect him to the mystical and the spiritual.


Bibliography
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