Cheston Knapp
Artist Statement
Several years ago I got a small fellowship for my writing. With a portion of the money, I bought a camera, believing that an extracurricular artistic hobby would relieve some of the colossal pressure I'd put on myself to write something unshitty. I’d been into photography in high school, had taken all the electives offered and been ensorcelled by the darkroom, by the magic and mystique of it, the way you entered through Star Trek doors to encounter the ripe smell of the chemicals and the soft babble of the rinse. It was my first creative outlet, the means through which I first encountered the world as a possibility, as something I could mold and shape, as a primary material to frame. In the years since I bought that camera with fellowship funds, I've taken thousands of photos and gone through about a dozen cameras and now I'm itching to get back to writing, believing that such a return will relieve me of the colossal pressure I've put on myself to take unshitty photos. Maybe there’s no escaping this sick dialectic? Maybe it all really is just one big spin-cycle of anxiety? Who knows? The ten pictures submitted here are part of a series called “Bloom.” They were mostly shot in Oregon and Washington, though a few are from trips to New York, Palm Springs, and Bruges. I’ve always found it exceedingly difficult to articulate my process or philosophy; most attempts end up making me sound like a sad and pretentious ninny, like someone who’s basically begging for an atomic wedgie. But I’ll say that this series was built from a daily shooting practice and, in the broadest way possible, is meant to be about the way sustained attention can make the quotidian, well, flower.
Cheston Knapp | Portland, OR