GLIMPSING AN INSIGHT

A few weeks ago Helyn sent me an email which read "scarlet here is our Featured Artist, I would like you to interview him; his work will INSPIRE you." After I had looked at Dominic Rouse`s `Angeline` I emailed back; It Won`t; I give up. And that was before I`d looked, with eyes wide open and full of envy, at his outstanding, enormously A Mazing body of work; some of which can now be seen on pixiport. So with a blend of trepidation and great admiration I asked Dominic if he would risk a chat; he kindly said yes.

Scarlet: Hi Dominic, nice to meet you, your work is truly beautiful and extremely well crafted, you are a master, an artist.

Dominic: Thank you, but I would never have considered myself an artist until recently. I am a little uncomfortable being called an artist. 'Photographer' still feels more appropriate. Some viewers don't think that what I produce is photography and that's fine too. I simply enjoy making images. What a beautiful way to spend one's time. How I do them is only of interest to trainspotters, copyists and policemen. Why should I care which brushes Leonardo used, I only care that he painted at all. The idea is king and craft its servant.

Scarlet: Brilliant! ! Beautifully put .. I have never thought of myself as a trainspotter, but I would love to know how, see; and watch you making your visions appear. I liken you to a magician who has trained and studiedly practiced his skill to a fine tune then skillfully produces intricate works of art and magic; seamlessly and effortlessly to perfection. But why and how were you attracted to a box with a hole in it?

Dominic: By default. For reasons best known to the gods my career choice was journalism. I did not possess the 'A Levels' needed for the NCTJ Journalism course but I did have the 'O Levels' needed to join their Press Photography course. So I did.

Scarlet: And when and where did your visions and aspirations start, and where were they coming from?

Dominic: I always start with a title which is why great writers are so helpful. A page of Nietzsche could keep me going for years. A love of poetry helps. It is so succinct. The closest art to photography is poetry and all good art is poetic. You may know Freud's observation, 'Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.' Exasperatingly true I'm afraid.

Scarlet: Yes, and I saw from your bio you`ve read the `Dark Ones` Kafka, Neitzshe with a shade of light entertainment from Mr Larkin.

Dominic: I must say I find it difficult to describe Larkin's work as light reading.

Far from the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable inside a room
The traffic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are."
Perhaps I have misinterpreted him.

Scarlet: Touche!!! But I did say a `shade` of . I`m actually not a lover of poetry but I am affected by words, particularly some of his and Stevie Smith. I rarely just Wave, and emotions can be set off by lyrics as well as the Meaning of Life poems. By the way what and whose music do you listen to when you are working?

Dominic: A perfect question. Indeed the perfect question as it gives me an opportunity to mention my life-long love affair with John Martyn. I genuflect before his genius, I cry at everyone of his concerts, I would give him my heart but he gently took it from my grasp many years ago. If he wanted to use my prints as intimate wipes I would let him-and be honoured!. There is no emotion he cannot express without the tenderness of the sweetest mother. I would like to make one photograph (just one, dear God just one, that's all I ask!) that can compare favourably with the beauty of any one of his songs. "If you kissed the sun right out of the sky for me If you told me every lie I might deserve If you lay all night in the rain for me I could not love you more" sung with the sweetest melancholy you can imagine. 'Angeline' is the title of one of his songs. It contains the simple lament "Angeline will you always wear white?" which is the line my photograph attempts to answer. Inadequately I confess. 'No little boy left' is a title culled from 'Ways to cry' ("If I ever took another woman I was bleeding for you") So, the answer to your question is that I listen to all kinds of music when making my images but the words and music of John Martyn are the ones that most protect me from this wicked world and help me make my work.

Scarlet: Yes I understand, and thank you for introducing me to his words, sentiment and music. Actually I have read and been moved by your `Waiting For the Past` when do you make the time for writing or does it take over the time; do you write whilst you are working on a project; do they merge together or is that a completely separate creativity?

Dominic: Well I tend to be `Wordy` in the early hours and more visually literate in the evening. The least exasperating progress towards an image's completion is invariably achieved twixt the hours of 6 and 9 pm. Because the world is quieter when the human animal is at rest. When I am not working on images I find release in writing but I seem incapable of following both disciplines simultaneously. 'Waiting for the Past' is, at its heart, an expression of the disenchantment which was my reward for concentrating on making meaningless commercial images for twenty years, rather than making the pictures that I should have been, regardless of their economic success. Viewed with the luxury of hindsight, it is proof that I knew where I was going long before I knew where it would take me. "None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty, not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success." wrote Thoreau. In his magnificent investigation into the artist's soul (The Outsider, 1956) Colin Wilson wrote "A Napoleon without his army, an actor without his audience, is a nobody. The peculiarity of the poet, the man of imagination is that he doesn't need other people to express his dominance. The great writer or thinker isn't writing primarily for other people; he is exploring the world of his own being. The huntsman needs a fox to give the chase excitement; the philosopher pursues an abstract fox across the landscape of his own mind." Art-making is the closest you can get to God without actually having to be good. It is my antidote for this human condition.

Scarlet: Very wise words indeed. And luckily for us, your artistry can be seen widely , as you have won many worthy awards and exhibited in cities all over of the world. And now to be found on websites in cyberspace. By the way the images on pixiport look Theatrical, is this your intent? Life is a stage etc.

Dominic: Not really, there is no special effort expended to try and make the images appear theatrical. I guess the fact that my 'locations' are places that do not actually exist may make them look like a stage backdrop.

Scarlet: Yes, they are intriguing and mysterious, and although familiar, the backgrounds and objects do seem unreal. Your technical skills are exceptionally well founded where and how did you learn your craft.?

SDominic: I was very fortunate to study photography at Blackpool College which has an excellent course. The Blessed Trinity (Roger Goodwill, Gordon Read and Geoff Clark) were in their prime in the mid-eighties ably assisted by Ted Gray and Roger MacDonald. The importance of the craft and techniques of photography were stressed as these help one to control the journey of light from imagination to finished print. My knowledge of the digital realm is self-acquired.

Scarlet: Excellent schooling. So now with the magic of digital technology how do you set it all up? Do you have a routine, notes, the right tools at hand, are your actors and scenery ready to go? Or are you taken over by your characters and they lead you far beyond your first expectations and visions?

Dominic: I do need everything in its rightful place before I can begin. I work on several images at once so getting all the scans done and collated can take some time before I get to work on an image. I always have a title and a description written out from which I start doing 'sketches' (low resolution dry runs on the pc). This can sometimes take a few days. Once I am satisfied that all the pieces are going to go together reasonably well I can then start on the hi-res image. I aim to make eight finished pieces in a year. 'The cunning of unreason' was conceived in 2001, started in 2002 and finished in February of this year which is unusual I confess but it might give you some idea of the amount of time I can spend on an image. There is of course some leeway allowable in the execution of an image but I do try to stick to the original idea as much as is possible. Often when working on an image serendipity will occur which will give me clues to other images. Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them and pretty soon you have a dozen.

Scarlet: That is certainly an impressive work load . Which begs the question, what power urges you on to create, and maybe as importantly where do you find the energy to sustain the consistency?

Dominic: I simply keep making images because I thoroughly enjoy doing so. There is little self-discipline or energy required as it seems to me to be a very natural process.

Scarlet: That is wonderful; nothing more impelling and gratifying than a love and passion for the work you do. Do you have the same feelings towards printing digitally?

Dominic: No, I had tried various kinds of digital outputs but none of them really gave me the feel I wanted . One of the problems was holding the details in the shadow areas which a silver gelatin print does very well so now I don`t make my own prints; I leave that to the expert, Mike Crawford.

Scarlet: On a frivolous note regarding your prints, I read you became a press photographer at sixteen, and now you produce prints on 16x20 paper in an edition of sixteen. Is sixteen a relevant number to you or merely a coincidence. ??

Dominic: Very Inventive!! But no, I`m sorry to report it is a mundane coincidence. I wanted to keep the edition size to eight which was the number of copies made of Duchamps' urinal but my US gallery said it was too low a number to limit an edition to. I agreed to a compromise but now I wish I hadn`t. As much as possible I try to avoid compromise as it can often lead to mediocrity.

Scarlet: Well mediocrity certainly is not a word that can be used regarding your work . Aux contraire is it outstandingly imaginative and beautifully crafted, and it is Inspiring . With another lifetime I might be getting close, but I`m not holding my breath… Yet it has been a pleasure to spend some time with you and a great honour and I thank you for allowing me just a glimpse in to the life of a very talented artist. Thank you and very best wishes for your next journey of imaginings.