Jeff Wall's Natural Forms

"A natural form...is an expression of infinitesimal metamorphoses of quality."  -Jeff Wall

I found this quote from Jeff Wall on Katherine Vlasak’s blog. Initially, the quote seemed a bit inscrutable, but further examination reveals an interesting philosophy that is evident in many of his photographs. This is something Katherine illustrated in her description of Wall’s photograph, in which a man sits in front of a brick wall, and has just squeezed a carton of milk. Wall caught the milk just as it exploded, which creates an interesting juxtaposition of organic shapes against the rigid shapes of the brick wall. This contrast creates a lovely dialogue which highlights the thought behind Wall’s quote.

By ‘natural form,’ I imagine Wall means organic things – not organic in the sense of being carbon-based, but organic in the sense that they are not man-made. The shapes of the bricks and glass that frame the picture are planned. The shape of the exploded milk, however, is random (well, not entirely random; it is a product of its own physical properties, but the exact shape is not sculpted by any hand). Its quality is that very changeability – no two containers of milk would explode the same way. By placing these distinct types of forms together, Wall has concisely presented this “expression of…quality.”