How do I relate to Soth & Relle?

• Relle's portfolio is pretty straightforward in what they want the viewer to engage with (photos of homes in disrepair or homes that are crumbling in NOLA). Having said that, Relle does a really good job at capturing the remnants of the homes, the leftovers from the inhabitants, the remains of society. He uses a perspective that leads into his subject matter and his choice of the time (end of day, beginning of night) is also fitting for the portfolio. Aesthetics and strong emotional subject matter holds the portfolio together

• On the other hand, it is much harder to engage with Soth's work. By not specifying the subject or location, we are left to interpret the portfolio on our own terms. We have to bring our thoughts and biases into his work and try to engage with it on our own terms. This makes it hard for us to "get it" and move on. Without a closure, we want to come back to it and "read more" about the photographs. Soth doesn't get pinned down to one aesthetic approach and uses his concept to hold the portfolio together

• In my photography, I have been making a conscious move away from a focus on aesthetically pleasing images to conceptually strong images. My website, www.ravisattuluri.com has four portfolios that document this journey (Inanimate - Aesthetics to Memories - Concept). I feel that I have just begun looking at photography in a conceptual manner.

• I started off by taking images that were visually pleasing and satisfied the norms for a "good looking photograph". I think that by keeping a focus on aesthetic, if I develop more on the conceptual side, I would get closer in my work to Frank Relle's work

• However, I think that it is much more liberating to be not held down to any one "belief" when pursuing art. Therefore, I think that it would be a good experience for me to try to understand how to approach an artwork as an exploration of a concept without being wedded to any "rules"

• In the end, the choice is to make artwork that wows people or artwork that makes people more contemplative. In the first one, the viewer is spellbound for a minute and walks on. The second one engages with the viewer and starts a dialogue where the viewer can keep coming back to the artwork. I would like to move to a stage where I can create artwork that can communicate with viewers and make them want to come back for a dialogue with it