"And the camera position, the organization, looking for repeating forms, shapes, trying to set up a visual rhythm seemed to come very natural. All of a sudden I was in a forest of aluminum and steel rather than a forest that we might think of in a traditional sense"
About this Quote
Sexton is describing the moment an artist’s eye snaps into place: not by chasing “beauty,” but by noticing structure. The telling detail is how quickly the language turns procedural - “camera position,” “organization,” “repeating forms,” “visual rhythm.” That’s the pedagogue speaking, but it’s also the photographer confessing that seeing is a practice, not a mood. The intent is quietly demystifying. Composition isn’t a magic trick; it’s pattern recognition under pressure, applied to whatever environment you’re dropped into.
The subtext sits in that pivot from “a forest” to “a forest.” He doesn’t reject nature; he transfers nature’s logic to the built world. Aluminum and steel become trunks and branches, not because they’re spiritually equivalent, but because the eye can be trained to read them the same way: density, repetition, interval, interruption. It’s an argument for visual literacy in the industrial age - the camera as a tool that reclassifies the ordinary. You can hear a modernist lineage here (the city as landscape, infrastructure as geometry), but Sexton’s phrasing is less manifesto than revelation.
Context matters: as an educator, Sexton is modeling the teachable epiphany. Students often think “subject” is king; Sexton implies form is the real subject. The “traditional sense” of forest is almost a trap - a culturally pre-approved image. By choosing the metallic forest, he’s nudging viewers to abandon sentimental hierarchies and find meaning in rhythm, not nostalgia.
The subtext sits in that pivot from “a forest” to “a forest.” He doesn’t reject nature; he transfers nature’s logic to the built world. Aluminum and steel become trunks and branches, not because they’re spiritually equivalent, but because the eye can be trained to read them the same way: density, repetition, interval, interruption. It’s an argument for visual literacy in the industrial age - the camera as a tool that reclassifies the ordinary. You can hear a modernist lineage here (the city as landscape, infrastructure as geometry), but Sexton’s phrasing is less manifesto than revelation.
Context matters: as an educator, Sexton is modeling the teachable epiphany. Students often think “subject” is king; Sexton implies form is the real subject. The “traditional sense” of forest is almost a trap - a culturally pre-approved image. By choosing the metallic forest, he’s nudging viewers to abandon sentimental hierarchies and find meaning in rhythm, not nostalgia.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by John
Add to List
