The photographer Jeff Wall interests me for his dedication and the ends for which he conjures it; unless you share some of the same obsessional traits and interest in the surface, those may seem to be at odds; I do not know. First, there is the working method; for one shot he sought to capture an interior with an exterior view but he scouted a location, then cast a woman in the role of occupant and gave her a budget to furnish it, only returning after a year, when the trees were bare, to take the shot.

This enormous effort of contrivance, but so that it does not appear contrived, is not done in order that the picture should have a meaning that another picture, taken more casually, could not. Wall has become so disinterested in the meaning of his subjects that he is now relieved to find that his earlier work is not re-rendered unsuccessful by its earnest concern, were that to be looked over. His picture ‘Mimic’ is the perfect example, which Wall himself cites; taken ostensibly as some kind of comment on racism, it is just ‘good’ in a Guardian interview from 2005. He could be the patron saint of those who just want to get something right from their point of view and relegate to a tertiary concern what others make of it.

Reading:

Photographer Jeff Wall's best shot Art and design The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/05/photography-jeff-wall-best-shot

Jeff Wall Conjuring something out of nothing - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3669616/Jeff-Wall-Conjuring-something-out-of-nothing.html

interview Melissa Denes meets photographer Jeff Wall Art and design The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/oct/15/art

Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Jeff Wall
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/rooms/room3.shtm