2010, from Autobiography, in my iPad application Horvatland
Photographing sculpture has long been a hobby of mine. It could be said that such a photograph is to its subject what a translation is to the original text. Or what an interpretation by an instrumentalist is to the musical score (although there is a difference, because the essential purpose of the score is to be interpreted…). Or one could compare it to the exercise of a beginning artist, copying the work of a master (just as that master might have done when he was starting out…). Or else – and this is my favourite comparison – it’s like walking in the footsteps of a giant who went the same way, but at a different time and with a different purpose… One of the pleasures of this kind of photography is being relieved of the responsibility of authorship: the giant must have known where he was going. As it happens, I was also relieved, if I may put it that way, of any concerns about a financial return: I never expected this kind of work to be widely distributed or well paid – and this is another reason why I see it as a hobby.