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Vision and
Beyond
David Campany
David Batchelder made these photographs between 2010
Batchelder has made thousands of images in this manner.
self-involved, doing go-for-broke art and not caring what
So here we have a book, a large book, of Batchelder’s sus-
and 2015 in the tidal zone on the beaches that fringe Isle
That is a large number but compared to how many could be
comes of it.” The work of the termite artist is an “act both of
tenance. You will make of it what you will. Indeed, I suspect
of Palms, a small barrier island off Charleston, on the east-
made, it’s a drop in the ocean. More to the point, making
observing and being in the world, a journeying in which the
that with such imagery ‘making something of it’ is unavoid-
ern coast of the United States. Unless you are an expert in
photographs like this is akin to beachcombing: you have to
artist seems to be ingesting both the material of his art and
able. Nature’s abstractness, typified by beaches and rocks,
geology or marine biology, you would not know this from
do a lot of it to get the real treasure. And of course, the lon-
the outside world through a horizontal coverage.” He has a
tends to provoke us to great extremes of reaction: the uni-
looking at the images. Like much of our surroundings, these
ger one does it the more one’s sensibility is refined and the
“bug-like immersion in a small area without point or aim, and,
versal or the particular; the sacred or the profane; the pre-
beaches could be many places in the world, and many more
deeper one must go into the unknown heart of the project.
over all, concentration on nailing down one moment without
cious or the pointless; the significant or the meaningless;
places in the mind.
To make this work Batchelder has, literally and metaphori-
glamorizing it, but forgetting this accomplishment as soon
the lofty or the low. It has something to do with the involun-
cally, kept his head down.
as it has been passed; the feeling that all is expendable, that
tary rush, the intuitive projection we make upon both nature
it can be chopped up and flung down in a different arrange-
and what seems abstract. It seduces our unconscious wish-
The technique is simple but the results are infinitely varied. The camera is hand-held (a tripod would sink into the sand)
In 1962 the film critic Manny Farber made a comic but seri-
ment without ruin.” Many of the greatest photographers were
es into revealing themselves. Is it possible to look at these
and pointed downwards. The photographer keeps his feet
ous distinction between what he called ‘white elephant art’
(are) termites. Think of Eugène Atget, for example, pursuing
photographs without seeing something in them?
out of the frame. The camera records and makes permanent
and ‘termite art’. White elephant art is made in the self-
his affection for old Paris as it disappeared under the tide of
a world in flux. The seawater soaks away, the sand slowly
conscious pursuit of transcendent greatness, in the chan-
modernity. In his own domain, almost invisible between the
The New Yorker once ran cartoon showing a returning sol-
dries and the wind remakes the surface. These are appear-
nels where greatness is conventionally noted. The white
worlds of art and commerce, Atget did what only he could
dier being given a Rorschach test. One by one the doctor
ances that never repeat. With every tide, unique shapes and
elephant artist will “pin the viewer to the wall and slug him
do. I am inclined to think of David Batchelder in a similar way,
holds up those infamous cards of blotches and splodges
configurations that no human could create are written and
with wet towels of artiness and significance.” By contrast,
making his work because he wants to, has to, and nobody
and the soldier responds: “A woman’s breast. A woman’s
erased. It has been going on since before we were here
termite artists get on with their work with little regard for af-
else will. Imagine him on that island, walking from his home
face. The silhouette of a naked woman. A woman’s ass. Two
and it will continue long after we have gone.
firmation or posterity. They are “ornery, wasteful, stubbornly
on Seagrass Lane to the sands that sustain him.
women.” It is dollar-book Freud of course, but it would not
4
5
Vision and
Beyond
David Campany
David Batchelder made these photographs between 2010
Batchelder has made thousands of images in this manner.
self-involved, doing go-for-broke art and not caring what
So here we have a book, a large book, of Batchelder’s sus-
and 2015 in the tidal zone on the beaches that fringe Isle
That is a large number but compared to how many could be
comes of it.” The work of the termite artist is an “act both of
tenance. You will make of it what you will. Indeed, I suspect
of Palms, a small barrier island off Charleston, on the east-
made, it’s a drop in the ocean. More to the point, making
observing and being in the world, a journeying in which the
that with such imagery ‘making something of it’ is unavoid-
ern coast of the United States. Unless you are an expert in
photographs like this is akin to beachcombing: you have to
artist seems to be ingesting both the material of his art and
able. Nature’s abstractness, typified by beaches and rocks,
geology or marine biology, you would not know this from
do a lot of it to get the real treasure. And of course, the lon-
the outside world through a horizontal coverage.” He has a
tends to provoke us to great extremes of reaction: the uni-
looking at the images. Like much of our surroundings, these
ger one does it the more one’s sensibility is refined and the
“bug-like immersion in a small area without point or aim, and,
versal or the particular; the sacred or the profane; the pre-
beaches could be many places in the world, and many more
deeper one must go into the unknown heart of the project.
over all, concentration on nailing down one moment without
cious or the pointless; the significant or the meaningless;
places in the mind.
To make this work Batchelder has, literally and metaphori-
glamorizing it, but forgetting this accomplishment as soon
the lofty or the low. It has something to do with the involun-
cally, kept his head down.
as it has been passed; the feeling that all is expendable, that
tary rush, the intuitive projection we make upon both nature
it can be chopped up and flung down in a different arrange-
and what seems abstract. It seduces our unconscious wish-
The technique is simple but the results are infinitely varied. The camera is hand-held (a tripod would sink into the sand)
In 1962 the film critic Manny Farber made a comic but seri-
ment without ruin.” Many of the greatest photographers were
es into revealing themselves. Is it possible to look at these
and pointed downwards. The photographer keeps his feet
ous distinction between what he called ‘white elephant art’
(are) termites. Think of Eugène Atget, for example, pursuing
photographs without seeing something in them?
out of the frame. The camera records and makes permanent
and ‘termite art’. White elephant art is made in the self-
his affection for old Paris as it disappeared under the tide of
a world in flux. The seawater soaks away, the sand slowly
conscious pursuit of transcendent greatness, in the chan-
modernity. In his own domain, almost invisible between the
The New Yorker once ran cartoon showing a returning sol-
dries and the wind remakes the surface. These are appear-
nels where greatness is conventionally noted. The white
worlds of art and commerce, Atget did what only he could
dier being given a Rorschach test. One by one the doctor
ances that never repeat. With every tide, unique shapes and
elephant artist will “pin the viewer to the wall and slug him
do. I am inclined to think of David Batchelder in a similar way,
holds up those infamous cards of blotches and splodges
configurations that no human could create are written and
with wet towels of artiness and significance.” By contrast,
making his work because he wants to, has to, and nobody
and the soldier responds: “A woman’s breast. A woman’s
erased. It has been going on since before we were here
termite artists get on with their work with little regard for af-
else will. Imagine him on that island, walking from his home
face. The silhouette of a naked woman. A woman’s ass. Two
and it will continue long after we have gone.
firmation or posterity. They are “ornery, wasteful, stubbornly
on Seagrass Lane to the sands that sustain him.
women.” It is dollar-book Freud of course, but it would not
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