Mark Steinmetz: Chicago

Most of us are not even particularly curious. We live in the world and try to get by: the less effort it takes, the better. Truly knowing the world is an endeavour, and we have often developed opposite abilities: we look without seeing, we hear without listening.

“Good photography is done when you’re out of control, when you let yourself take a step into the unknown” - says Steinmetz. The ancient Greeks called this ecstasy, and it was tied to both artistic practice and the relationship with the divine. That notion has survived - transformed through the Renaissance, then through the concept of artistic ecstasy in Romanticism - into our own day. A harmonious synthesis between the self and the other, in a perfect communion of the divine and of Nature. Steinmetz, who has practiced meditation for over twenty years, speaks of absorption: letting one’s gaze be permeated by what lies beyond the self, with the clarity and transparency that meditation makes possible. Brassaï wrote, “The more the photographer tries to show the world, the more of the photographer is shown” - which means that you never go too far from yourself – whether you are in Paris, Knoxville or Chicago.

Steinmetz’s photographs apparently emerge from simply having been somewhere, wandering with his camera. He might have asked someone to repeat a gesture or a posture. Something happens, people are rarely caught in still portraits, they are often in the midst of an activity. A certain social and historical awareness gently pushes his boundaries and contributes to offering a vision that is not only subjective, but also surprising and resonant.

His eyes are drawn to the relationships between elements within the frame, favoring a horizontal vision to capture a sense of constant flow, a perpetual change. There definitely is the influence of cinema, particularly Antonioni, which he studied in earlier years. His work is timeless and it also has time as a crucial element: the time he uses for wandering and shooting, the time he uses for printing in the darkroom, and the long slow careful time for editing. For instance, these images were taken between 1988 and 1991, and the book was released by Nazraeli press earlier this year. “I like looking back when there’s no pressure” says the author.

There is never pressure in his images. Instead, they often derive from an ironic stance that acknowledges the complexities of human experience, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of both ourselves and others. You can easily understand now, why having Mark Steinmetz is so important: he makes the effort of understanding the world and translates it for us into a knowing, graceful smile.

Mark Steinmetz was born in New York in 1961 and currently lives in Paris, France.

-Giulia Zorzi of Micamera, Milan