Les Jones

Edgar Martins, photographer and bullshit artist

Friday, July 10th, 2009 | Media Behaving Badly, Photos |

Compare these two statements. First, le artiste:

Though my images are minimal in tone, they do not pare down my experience of place. In my work there is scope for so much more. What seem like highly controlled and manipulated photographs are but a product of illusion. The illusion of the photographic process. This is especially evident in “The Accidental Theorist” series. Most people assume that these image are manipulated. Or perhaps even staged. In reality, there is no post-production work, no darkroom or computer manipulation.
– Edgar Martins

And then the guy who doesn’t believe him:

I call bullshit on this not being photoshopped. Check it out. I’ll eat my hat if this is not fakery.
– unixrat

unixrat was right, his animated GIF proved it, and the New York Times has pulled Martins’ photos.You can still find them on the photographer’s Web site.

Now people are reviewing his other work. Despite his claims, Martins repeatedly mirrored and Photoshopped his images, both in the New York Times piece that led to his downfall and throughout his career.

Read the whole interview quoted above to see just how drunk on his artistic pretensions Martins is.

My work has an apparent formalism and aesthetic rigor that some define as being precise. However, the process by which the images are created is everything but precise. I photograph in often “unphotographable” conditions, whether in burning forest fires or the icy winters of Iceland. I also make use of long exposures. When you work in this way even the most natural of occurrences become difficult to quantify: light, time, focus, etc. For so long photography has been about control; I like to relinquish some of that control. This apparent contradiction, this dualism really interests me. I have always found photography to be a highly inadequate medium for communicating ideas—a subject and object of lack, if you like. However, it is this dissatisfaction with the medium that spurs me on to find a new visual language to work with, and, I suppose, a new vocabulary from which to derive my glossary of life.

Thing is, he has some good images. I wouldn’t care if they were Photoshopped if he hadn’t sworn up and down they weren’t, and if he weren’t so incredibly pretentious. You get the impression half of the guy’s cred was based on his patter rather than his portfolio.

Previously - YouTube, Meet Bullshit Artist. Bullshit Artist, Meet YouTube.

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