Jordi Nackan
Photographs to Dance to
As an expressive art, music is like nothing else; it is ephemeral, completely intangible, and fleeting. It exists only at the moment it is comprehended, yet its impact on the listener endures. I was more interested in the camera because the camera’s sense is singular. Even when confronted with a purely auditory medium, the camera has no choice but to see.
Is it possible to record a song in a single image? This series stemmed from a desire to use a visual medium (photography) to describe the nuances of an auditory medium (music), and to capture its emotion, duration, and movement rather than its tone and notation.
I photographed myself and my siblings by fixing the shutter open for the duration of a chosen piece of music. I hoped to compress the piece of music into a single photograph, a single moment.
Once the song ends the active listening experience ends with it. I wondered if perhaps there was a lasting visual imprint left by the music – like that of the looming resonance of the final note, the warmth of the musicians’ touch on the keys or the emotions imparted onto the listener.
Jordi Nackan is a visual artist and photographer fascinated by emotional expression through the arts. Jordi’s work focuses on the photographic medium, its strengths, limitations, and the way it impacts how we see the world.