R Christian Egger  

I consider art to be an expression of an inner life, or a personal vision-a landscape of my individual mind that is shown in the work of art. The work of art, with its presence then ”speaks” in its own unique language respective of its medium and technique of what the artist’s personal vision is. So for instance, to put photographic art or any other art for that matter into words is not appropriate or entirely possible, if one is to most completely appreciate the landscape of the individual artist’s mind. In other words to understand a photograph it must above all else be viewed.

To explain the landscape of the mind one must understand that it consists of aspects such as arrangements, relationships, facts, theories, hypotheses, beliefs, feelings, moralities, prejudices, experiences, loves, hates, interests, motivations, etc. The list would be endless. Making this list possible is the innate abilities and capabilities of our human species in their existence and consciousness with respect to fundamental universal principles governing all aspects of reality.

Again each individual artist has his own personal landscape of the mind. Every ”landscape” has an arrangement of all its aspects in a kind of coordinate system, such that every aspect has a magnitude and position entirely unique to the individual artist. In dealing with an infinite number of aspects in infinite arrangements, with an infinite range of magnitudes it can be seen there is an infinites variance and range of artistic expression by artists possible.

I have always loved the landscape. This is a characteristic of my inner landscape. The landscape is more basic than man, as it came before him and will endure after him and in a mysterious way as much of its past is unknown as will be its future due to our lack of presence during these periods. What really is the Landscape? I’ve turned its soil, watched all life spring from it, have seen the great gray wolf run across it with a bullet hole the size of a silver dollar in his belly, with eyes like coals of blood, afraid of me as I am afraid of him, not blaming anyone and not knowing the smell is the smell of death to which he and I are both destined, while at the same time a bloodroot opens. I have dined on flat rocks with offerings of the landscape and sneaked into forbidden woods to find crayfish in swamps and imprints of disappeared animals. Life and death are written here.

In my art I wish to show what is really there. A camera can take a photograph and “see” what is there photographically only, but it is the case that the camera is only a machine-it does not have a landscape of the mind. It is what the camera does not see but what is really there that I try to photograph.

All art has to go though some kind of authentication process by the viewer. This means that one is relying on the conceptual process of the artist (with his inner landscape) and the conceptual process of the viewer (with his inner landscape) to lock in, at least to a degree, so that there is a universal appreciation and understanding of what is presented. This will never be 100 percent as no two inner landscapes would ever be the same.

Art is meant to be beautiful. Beauty in a work of art is something learned from it upon it being viewed. A great work of art allows one to return again and again to recognize the old beauty, and then to learn again as a new beauty is recognized.