Wall Art of the VMFA

Artist Statement: Frank Mercado

My idea of fine art photography was formed by the works of the 20th century Modernist masters. Two photographers of that era, Aaron Siskind and Minor White, particularly informed my work because like them I too am interested in investigating how photography, with its compositional powers of focus, framing, tonality control, and compression, can create an abstract image of formal beauty. 

In my search for a deeper understanding of the appeal of Siskind’s and White’s abstract photography, I have concluded that abstract photography of found objects and scenes can add another layer of interest for the viewer—a layer over and above the visual lure of a well-arranged composition of interesting design elements. I believe the additional layer of interest works like this: The viewer’s eye is first drawn to the formal beauty of the image, but the viewer’s mind realizes that this apparently abstract image is an actual scene out there in the real world. The mind demands to know more about the objects, and it seeks details. To satisfy curiosity, the viewer is drawn deeper into the image, unconsciously seeking the pleasure the mind expresses when a puzzle is solved. It is my belief in this dynamic that leads me to seek formal beauty in the abstractions of found objects, as opposed to taking more representational photographs of naturally beautiful subjects. The representational photograph of a naturally beautiful subject— the majestic landscape or a picturesque white clapboard church—may have its own visual allure, but I do not believe such a photograph triggers the secondary, puzzle-solving response I hope to initiate in the viewers of my work. 

I look for such beauty in the ordinary objects and scenes all around us, searching for a striking image that may be hiding in plain sight, locked within or camouflaged by an ordinary or even ugly context. I endeavor to record details unseen by casual human vision, capture shades and colors unnoticed by the eye, block out distracting context, and reveal patterns, forms, and shapes that may be apparent only when three dimensions are compressed into two.

In the series Wall Art of the VMFA I argue that not all the art in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is hanging on the walls or placed on pedestals. If you know where to look, and how to see, you can find beauty in the very walls and halls of the building itself.