THE VISION by ELLIOTT


"My original vision as an artist was always to give contemporary art a new direction and evolve it.

In 1970, art seemed to me to have lost its way. The great master painters had gone. Nothing better had replaced them.

And I realised that photography had reached the point where technologically, an artist could take it seriously.

The world and his wife, even the well-hyped photographers of the day, all said "Photography is not Art".

I knew photography had to move beyond observational recording and black and white, in order to be seen as great art.

So I pioneered it. From 1970, I did nothing else but create photographic works of art, day and night. In colour.

I had a good global overview of Photography, but nowhere, could I observe others doing the same. No group of artists I could join.

The quintessential verisimilitude of photography is the essence of its power. It is quite simply a superior form of imaging.

Photography is the Art of our time. A more powerful form of Art.

And when at the beginning of the Nineties everyone said "You can't create art with computers", I pioneered that too.

Cyber Art is the future. It creates an infinite number of brilliant new creative possibilities, unique to computers.

Computers also make Photography fluid and additionally enable greater things than are possible with paint.

It is not generally understood, as yet, that Art can only advance in parallel with science.

So I became a pioneer and innovator in the two most revolutionary art forms in history.

My vision was always to create an art as beautiful as it is profound. As consistent as it is diverse. This aim remains true today.

To take the very best from the past and synergistically combine it with cutting edge ideas and the technology of today.

To find emotion in the machine, passion and fire, perhaps even a little of the Divine.

And to paint with technology a truly universal art for the electronic age."

JAMES ELLIOTT