Yarddogphotography : Photography : about Biba Logan

On a personal and social level I have always known Biba to treat everybody she encounters in exactly the same way. That is to say usually without judgement, without unnecessary psychological scrutiny (which is more and more common too our times), without any pre conceived idea too of who exactly or what exactly they are. This inherent quality of her character provides for me one of the vital keys in which to understand her photographic approach. We see her subjects willingly look into the lens without any apprehension or self consciousness. Their gaze is trusting, natural, and never apprehensive in the presence of her as photographer. A rare relationship between subject and picture maker. All too often we see photographs and images overburdened with heavy conceptual or technical concerns and therefore obscuring the very human relationship between subject and artist. In any environment or situation her images carry a common continuity of people simply being themselves.this is as true as her extensive portraits of Texans, Mexicans, Dubliners, artists or migrant workers and children. Each portrait carries the same human weight, people just as folk, as pure and simple or as complicated as they or their stories may be. Such simplicity is hard to capture in any medium whether it be sculpture, painting or song. For my part the works resonate deeply on the basis that she is constantly engaged purely in the act of seeing, and seeing again. Always as if for the first time. N.C. Lawlor

Artist Statement

Dust, diners, displaced persons, images that contain opposites...the spirit of a thing; these are the photographic elements that compel me to release the shutter. I never seek to capture any particular thing. For me it’s more to do with taking a second look and discovering something familiar. People often talk about photography with regard to capturing something; owning it. Of course anything you capture you cannot hold onto for very long, animals, loves etc. Once captured the essence of a thing decays.

The element of chance has always been essential to photography and has produced a great deal of enduring images. Chance coupled with a little instinct and lots of enthusiasm seem to be a good approach to creating memorable images. My practice started off with me just winging it or, as they say, chancing my arm. I still do enjoy the spontaneity of that. A series of pictures can take on the same resonance as an album or collection of songs, each one relating to or challenging the other. It’s the many parts which make the whole.

My visit to Texas inspired me hugely. First off, I had never been there and secondly I was a new born with a camera. More than the obvious Americana, the passing of time informed my pictures of that place. The unforgiving heat and vast empty spaces allowed me to operate in slow motion and take so much in. I am grateful that my first excursion with my camera was not in London or Paris where the pace and way of life is fast and held in a relatively small geography. The sense of time and space in Texas is something I want to incorporate in my pictures of other people and places. The whole effect where things are allowed to breathe, hours bleed slowly into the next, time snail crawls over landscapes and faces that are equally interchangeable. In short to "own" an image or subject has not been so far of much interest to me. Most things in life are only on loan anyways. Just like the moment you snap something. You only borrowed it from eternity. These days, I’m still happy to wing it.

-Biba Logan