Joseph Staples

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“When you compare pictures of people and abstract images, I think people feel a picture that looks like a person easiest to understand. But I can’t think of anything more abstract than people.”

Location:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Professional title:

Visual artist

What do you do?

I have a long term relationship with a few images and groups of images. Some I have been coming back to and reworking for almost 10 years. I work in large collages, usually about 3'x5'. I like the cut line that separates an image from others and the relationship between one photo and another.

Why?

I feel more settled when I am into a project. Writing and making things gives your life a focus outside of the usual feeds and dreary life problems that mostly don't matter. Its a reason to read, to watch things critically and to pay attention.

What should we read?

There are some great books below, but one you will not find on most lists is very good so I will stop to explain why here. Byung Chul Han is a professor of philosophy in Berlin. He writes about tech and modern culture and he is fantastic. His prose, especially in the later books is so tight, so clean of non-essentials that its like Western philosophy written by zen poets. It got me back into reading critical theory and philosophy. On Beauty was my first and a great intro. Any of the books are great, but the slimmer the better. Writings by Agnes Martin. In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichiro Tanazaki. Arranging Things by Leonard Koren. Art of Seduction by Robert Greene. The Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga. The Road to Character by David Brooks.