Text - Land Forms - superimposed photographs - 1983 - © Lloyd Godman

Text

...Initially, we are enticed into seeing beyond the cursory by being offered a contradiction; that contradiction being the finished/unfinished appearance his work has. Apparently uncomplicated subject matter, the use of black and white, and the strong historical feel Godman installs in his work, all load the viewer to contemplate works complete, events past.

From Photoforum March 1984

In today’s “society visual” we have become a conditioned to consume images - from every side we are bombarded with visual stimuli, to the point where we are indoctrinated to see the “message” almost without consideration for the image: in short the visual image has been reduced to being only the vehicle of the information contained within it.

It is the prejudice we have the no-allowance of no other lifetime to the image, other than the moment of being seen, that is the most perplexing facing any artist concerned with the visual art form.

Lloyd Goldman in his recent exhibition of black and white photographs at the Marshall Seifert Gallery Dunedin, has by the use of a number of techniques and along managed to invest in them a feeling of “evolving”: which alter viewing, does allow longevity of image- - in that they have a movement backward and forward. This movement is achieved by a number of methods and exploiting our prejudiced towards seeing and predictable ways. Initially we are enticed to see beyond the cursory by being offered a contradiction: that contradiction being the finished/unfinished appearance has work has. Apparently uncomplicated subject matter, the use of the black and white, and the strong historical feel Godman installs in his work, all lead the viewer to contemplate words complete events past. In complete opposition to this is the very coarse grainy finish all of Goldman’s work has; here one is led towards moments about to happen, things that might be. There is a very strong element of memory about this collection of photographs and that is something that is constantly evolving as we move further away from the past into the future.

“Land Forms” is the cumulative and of three year’s work for Godman. The fact that he has revisited most of his locations many times over a period of several years in every conceivable mood and a light has allowed him to gain a memory picture that he later translates into a photograph. A devote of the Burton Brothers, he uses what he prefers to call a collage to over dress the initial image- with later images or impressions. Here I am sure the grainy finish to his work is done deliberately – perhaps as tiny granules as yet uncoded, or perhaps left to evolve and form new and different images – “Land Forms” The subtle control Godman has of this technique produces a pleasurable realization that having been shown an evolutionary starting point he then creates space for progression which viewers are invited to fill. They are maneuvered into this way of “seeing” by being offered some of Godman’s own progressions. In short, what Godman manages to say in his photographs is that the image is not stereotype it is personal- its interpretation belongs to none other than the person viewing it.

Land Forms has as its recurring theme a gull in flight – interestingly in some of photographs - a positive image - others are negative. Godman’s choice of the gull as central theme of “Land Forms” is particularly cleaver one because it’s image value stands astride the known and unknown - it is the fringe creature of land of sea of the air … we know it at their parks, badgering the plow, looting the rubbish dump: yet we do not know it. Godman lives in a Otago, in terms of overexposure almost Rotorua of the south; even the harshness of Central has been done to death – a province deep in the throes of tourist mania. It is important such alternatives and personal views it as those expressed in “Lands Forms” do survive.

Norman Meads 1983