<- Click herePhotographers are separated from their subjects by a machine. It's the job of the photographer to overcome that separation. Not to just make the machine an extension of his or her body. No... no... it is not a prosthetic device when it is working best. Think about how musicians have the same challenge. Great musicians don't merely incorporate their instrument into their arms or fingers. Nope... They incorporate it into their feelings. Their ideas. Their minds. Which is exactly what I see those photographers I most admire accomplishing. Some call that voice. They speak uniquely through their machines. You are part of their mood.
I'm trying to do that. Long ago I mastered the machine as completely as any musician who can sight read. What I am now continually trying to do is beyond that. Sight reading is rote reading. Now... now... how to understand something I feel about say, the Ponte Vecchio in the sunrise, and then letting you know precisely that?
Isn't that so much easier said than done? Here's the question... Do I have to tell you what I felt about this place at that moment, or, when you look at these images... have I already told you?
3 comments:
My favorite English teacher, a man who force fed us 8th graders good poetry until some of us actually learned to like it, once told us that if a poet explained his poem, he had defeated the purpose of putting his thoughts down in verse in the first place. I believe photographs are like that. They should speak for themselves and convey the photographer's ideas about a scene or a subject without needing an explanation from the photographer. And believe me, Ted, your images are speaking loud and clear.
Yup! And a good idea to create the diptych. It's interesting to see your images of that morning. I mean, I was there, I have a very precise feeling about how I saw the light, and only that makes it fully appreciable to me what kind of translation is going on in your mind.
I most probably wouldn't have done it that way, as I don't see the brilliance of that morning's light, and that brilliance is something that sticks for me (we had rain the day before), but that's the way artistic priorities come into the equation. Your's are different and that's only natural.
Do I like it any less? Not at all. The result is fantastic as always, and now I even had a glimpse into your artistic vision that I could never have had before. That's great!
Andreas
The muted hues of the morning light in a land far far away. Indeed this is beautiful and picture perfect for a post card!! I can only imagine your soft dreamy style vs advman slanted super saturated style. It is fun to see the two of you shoot in the same area and have such different results both appreciated for their own style and vision. I enjoy both your works for those very reasons. I love the light in this and the soft muted colors.
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