I viewed the daily compulsion to take photos as a desire to document the life and activity the surrounded Ms. Singer rather than a compulsion. “Compulsion” sounds like a negative term. It seems to imply that the person who is experiencing the compulsions has no control over what they are photographing. It seems to me, that she has complete control over what she photographs. I thought that it was incredible that she could continually find inspiration the twenty mile stretch that she had been photographing for most of her life.
The museum Curator saw these photos as artwork. She said that she felt a connection with them, and she wanted to own them. I think that anyone who can find inspiration in things that they see every day and create what others also see as artwork, have a very gift. She taught herself about f-stop and taught herself to have an eye. I think that what she has is not a compulsion but a desire to create art and capture the beauty in things that the people around her come to find as ordinary or mundane.
I have a hard time finding interest in the things that I see every day. I often find that if I am not experiencing a new activity or a new environment, I have a hard time finding inspiration. During the summer semester, I had to drive to areas of town that I had not been to before in order to find inspiration. I began to feel trapped only being able to photograph in the town that I have spent the majority of my life. I think that it is incredible that she can find things to take 12 pictures a day for 35 years in the same 20 mile stretch.
Rather than just being a personal archive, it is an archive of the people and the town around her. Many women took up photography as a hobby in the 19th century as a vehicle of expression. Hers are special because she didn’t shy away from the painful aspects of life, like the death of her son and the abuse and slow demise of her husband. She also expresses a part of herself that she doesn’t seem to be able to express otherwise through her photography. She dresses up like a Native American. This could be a way for her to escape. Her work defines her.
If her “compulsion” wasn’t based on expression and she was simply taking pictures because she “had to” I may not view her photography as art. I think that her willingness to explore every aspect of her life, even the hard ones, is commendable.
Good.
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