Photo App Lounge - A Picture's Worth...With Roger Guetta

Welcome to another new section to theappwhisperer.com, this new section is entitled ‘A Picture’s Worth…’ and it is a subsection of our Photo App Lounge column.

A Picture’s Worth… is where we ask iPhone photographers that have taken or made, as the case may be, powerful iPhone art to explain the processes they took. This includes their initial thoughts as to what they wanted to create, why they wanted to create it, how they created it, including all apps used and what they wanted to convey. We also ask these incredible artists to explain their emotions and how the image projects those feelings.

This is another totally unique section to theappwhisperer.com and one that offers the unique facility for the reader/viewer to find out more about an image and also for the artist to explain the complete process and message.

This is our first post in this new section and we are very pleased welcome Roger Guetta aka DraMan. Roger has worked as a Professor of Theatre Arts in Montreal for 30 years. Prior to that he spent many years in the field running his own theatre, painting and experimenting in photographic techniques. He has also been involved in the film business as screenwriter and producer. His works during that period where shown in both Montreal and Toronto galleries.

We recently interviewed Roger in our A Day In The Life Series, if you missed that, you can read it here.

In this A Picture’s Worth … today, Roger talks us through his incredible image Aldous Huxley, shown below. Have a listen and let us know your thoughts…

(If you would like to contribute to this section or if you have seen an image that you would like to learn more about, just email [email protected] and we will get it all set up).

Table of Contents

The Birth Of A Concept

Summer is here and my routine changes. A new freedom presents itself and I use this time to work at my favourite café terraces. The charm, of course, is that sometimes I am in the throws of creation and sometimes I find myself engaged in conversation with other artists from the area or as it was before I created this image, a conference with a new person. This particular person was around my age and after a while of getting to know one another we fixated on the fact that we both had similar life experiences in the theatre and film production. I was fascinated by her clarity of thought and zest for life. Soon the convo turned to, amongst other things, our influences. It was uncanny how our list of visionaries were so similar and how we both incorporated their influences into our body of work.
After she left, I ordered another caffeinated elixir and found myself deconstructing the exchange. When I got to Huxley, a wonderful thing happened. Every semester I have to come up with another play to stage and from the moment my last winter class is over, a compartment of my brain is open to suggestion from different sources. ‘Eureka,’ I then and there committed to adapting Brave New World for the stage. So a big part of that compartment was nurtured and I am now in the research and development stage of the project. After, I stopped that particular flow, I ordered a heavenly almond cookie and I suspect the sugar rush veered my thoughts to iPhone conceptualization and creation, which brings me to this image. Actually it led to the concept of recreating emotional renditions of the influences my new friend and I discussed. The title ‘The Visionary Series’ came to mind and I hunkered down to actualize it.

The Process

‘The Visionary Series’

JC – Roger, I would like you to explain your emotions and feelings before, during and after the process and what the final image means to you and how you intend it to be interpreted by others.

RG – I like the word ‘exemplify’ to describe what I try to do in image building. That is; to exemplify or to further clarify not the actuality of a story, but the metaphoric root of it’s existence. After reflecting on the specificities of the conversation I had with my new acquaintance, I felt a surge of inspiration which always elevates my spirit. The combination of brain storming, informal discussion and confirmation of like-mindedness is always a radical departure from the mundane and is well appreciated. Entering the ‘act’ of creation after a heightened emotional exchange allows me to engage with my
art making in the realm of what I describe as ‘the quiet mind.’ A mind unencumbered by erroneous chatter, able to flow holistically. In a way, emotions and feelings converge and thinking, or better put, decision making, becomes part and parcel of a genuine stream of consciousness.

The final image, to me, somehow affirms the notion that I used many different artistic influences to create a rendition of a great influence on my life. A portrait which transcends the actual (realism) and speaks to an inherent truth about the subject.

My intention is for the viewer to engage with the image in a visceral way, sometimes trying to decode it, sometimes just allowing the eye to flow and traverse it’s plane to attain feelings because of it’s design elements, balance, colour hues and overall structure.

On an intellectual level, the lines which embody every portrait in the series have a certain jolt which I hope the viewer interprets the way I mean it to be. To me, these visionaries not only had grand ideas, but used what I call ‘cutting edge’ or ‘lateral’ thought to actualize them. The lines symbolize the vast potential in all of us, if we dare to think and create new perceptions in ‘out of the box’ modalities. To go even deeper and now that I am here writing and thinking about it, I have been obsessing over the past few months about something which I think seeps into these images.

Unfortunately, I believe we as a society are mired and entrenched in trying to solve problems in a ‘Zero Sum Game,’ that is, as in a game of chess, there has to be a winner and a loser. I think we as citizens of the world can be visionaries too if we play a more lenient ‘win win’ game. In politics, in economics, in education, in inter-personal relations things must change or we risk entering Huxley’s cautionary tale.

There, I stood on my soapbox and pontificated. So sue me!!

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