Stefan Jennings Batista
As fate would have it, I get a hold of Stefan while he's in the midst of editing powerlines out of an image.
Currently based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Stefan Jennings Batista is a visual artist and educator who primarily works with photography, printmaking, and illustration. Batista describes his latest body of photographic work as "addressing the ways in which time is embedded into place – exploring how a strange magic lingers just beyond view."
Photography is a medium that, for better or for worse, was fundamentally altered with the internet. Most artistic mediums, if not all, went through some sort of paradigm shift and will more than likely continue to do so. Social media's predominant "medium," however, is undeniably images, and as such, it merits serious consideration in the ever-changing, hyper-connected landscape that is the 21st century.
As with most mediums, there is a plethora of discourse as to whether a given set of emergent technologies helps or hinders the craft. Batista acknowledges this in our conversation, remarking that he stands somewhere along the edge between the two perspectives.
"Truth be told," he says, "progress is always good and bad. It depends on whether you're a TikTok star or a horny toad about to go extinct."
This parable is perhaps a microcosm of a broader discussion on virality and internet culture's relationship to art. The current meme landscape is a great example of the speed at which things move in and out of the cultural nexus. Remember dat boi? You might, but then, would you invoke him in today's social media climate? Probably not. Perhaps we aren't quite at the level where memes are art (or are we?), but as art becomes increasingly hooked up with social media, I can't help but wonder if it'll start moving at the viral level.
"There's a cultural currency that comes with making, sharing, and virtual success," Batista tells me, referencing subject matter such as selfies or Yosemite or lunch in Venice. "This kind of 'credibility' – that which seems to inundate creative practice – becomes as important as the work itself. It makes me uneasy."
an image from Batista's body of work, Searching for Water (2017). Image courtesy of the artist.
The idea of "credibility" reminds me of ways in which I've witnessed a de facto marriage of sorts between the art world and social media. I remember scrambling to finish my undergrad studies around the same time that Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors was showing in Atlanta and being unable to attend. The workaround was to live vicariously through selfies taken by my peers. Picture that Spongebob meme where it's Squidward glaring down upon an idyllic Spongebob and Patrick, "me" on Squidward, "people who got to see Infinity Mirrors" on the latter two.
Batista says that the world shrinks when he's on the internet, but it feels expansive when he goes out into the New Mexico desert. Returning to the coincidence of finding him in the midst of 'shopping out power lines from a photo, I ask him if he would align himself with those who feel as if it's problematic: either that he's having to edit out the reality, or that the fact that he even has to do so is indicative of some problem.
Once again, he asserts himself as sitting somewhere in the middle of the aisle while maintaining a degree of caution.
"It can be [problematic]. But we've always been doing it – overlaying human ideas onto reality. That said, it's scary how divorced we are from day to day reality with an artifice between us."
for more of Stefan's work, visit his website.