My Struggle - Garrett Fisher
We Invited the Swiss-based pilot and aerial photographer to share his story about the realities of his artistic pursuits with “the inevitable sense of frustration, bewilderment and disappointment.”
By Garrett Fisher
As lockdown in early 2020 got started, I set my mind on doing something I usually do not: submitting to an art prize. Normally I avoid these, as the chances of getting selected are extremely low, and the workload is disproportionately high, which means it is basically for suckers, except for the one person that wins. For some reason that I do not understand now, I actually thought I had a reasonable chance, which caused me to set aside the calloused views that have developed over the years dealing with the art and publishing worlds. Suffice to say that merit is a very small part of why things get published or selected and much of it has to do with hard to quantify things such as how cranky the person is making the decision at the time.
While I can lose count of the quantity of people that feel that my stuff belongs in the prestigious art museums of the world, it doesn’t do anything to get it there, unless the mysterious powers that be permit it, and, so far, they have not been in the mood to explain the mysteries of their moods.
Knowing those realities, as a backdrop, I still had hope. Then I got carried away, and I had to ask myself how I’d react if I did not win. Then my enterprising brilliance entered into play, and I decided that I would just make the submission a book. That way, I couldn’t lose. Well, lose I did – not a winner, not a finalist, “but we encourage you to submit again next year.” Any feedback as to why that is the case? No. 33,000 words and 100 image submissions later….nothing, well, except for the prospect of a book.
I then wrote an honest yet cynical introduction, packaged the whole thing up, and then realized, disappointment aside, that I had put together a) the third most text heavy work to date and b) the most varied and comprehensive representation of my work yet in existence. Every other book has been focused on something much more narrow, whereas this one is complete open season on what I thought was best across the board.
Prior to this whole art prize nonsense, I had someone review my work who noted that my books “do not explain what the images are.” I pointed out that they are labeled, with precision, as to the subject and location, and he said, “But it still doesn’t tell me anything about it. You’re telling me all this background about the image as I review it. It should be in the book.” With “My Struggle,” I put it in the book. After failing to be selected as a finalist, I exchanged a conversation with an art professional, in particular the person that recommended submitting to the prize, and she said, “Perhaps next time you shouldn’t say so much.”
For whatever it is worth, this is book #6 for 2020, so I have broken my record, which turned out to be quite a struggle.
The introduction to “My Struggle” on Amazon reads:
One of the realities of pursuing artistic avocations is the inevitable sense of frustration, bewilderment, disappointment, and resignation at the process of attempting to gain recognition or cash from the products of creative pursuits. Egged on by a supportive and enthusiastic audience that found my work to be nothing short of extraordinary, Garrett Fisher set aside his calloused cynicism with the art world and actually bothered to make a submission to the Luxembourg Art Prize in 2020. Admittedly, a €50,000 prize for the winner was compelling, as were published statistics that revealed the chance of being selected as a finalist were adequately high. As lockdown continued along, the submission grew larger and larger, with more works and more text explaining artistic process behind the acquisition of a large collection of aerial photographs from two continents.
Worried that the process had gotten out of control, I decided to put the submission into a book and release it, no matter what the outcome. Spoiler alert: I did not win, nor was I selected as a finalist, which gave my sardonicism renewed vigor. Nonetheless, 100 images with adjoining text for each one, including the introductory essay written to the Art Prize has been included, along with a “love letter to the art world” identifying the complex, contradictory, and otherwise impossible facets of attempting to get noticed while at the same time causing explosions of glee in the minds of the viewers of his work. Spanning 2014 to 2020, “My Struggle” is the most comprehensive, varied, and thorough demonstration of Garrett Fisher’s artwork, with the largest body of explanatory text yet in existence related to his images.
According to Garrett Fisher’s Blog, his grandfather started giving him flying lessons in his Piper PA-18 Super Cub at the age of 8. Fisher gained his private pilot certificate at age 17 in a Piper PA-11 Cub Special. Now more than a decade and a half later, Fisher takes this same PA-11 all over the Europe (after flying all over the USA), photographing along the way and writing books about it. There is no shortage of adventure flying over wilderness areas, close to the ground, without a radio (update: got a radio in 2015), and literally flying by the seat of my pants.