For me photography is magical - it takes a slice of time and freezes it forever. But not actually forever because the negatives fade and get thrown out at the estate sale and the pixels get erased or frozen in an obsolete chip or the image gets buried in a cloud of millions or billions of other images and so photography is impermanent just like the event that it captured. It's magic is to give us a sense of freezing time even as the frozen image melts before our eyes, just as we melt before the eye of the camera. Baby picture, smiling first day of school, crazy teen, lover, parent, grandparent, headstone. Long live impermanence!
I am most certainly not a professional photographer, and many would argue whether I could ever qualify as amateur; however, I enjoy it, mostly the search for a picture, looking for the image. The article caused me to recall something I heard or read quite long ago about 'taking pictures', what I have found to be a truism - "...always look back...so often the image that you somehow know is there is behind you".
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Somebody mentioned snark. Not everyone can go there. So you share. I think that it is the only way that you can see. Did I miss that thought in there somewhere.
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Photographers use their cameras as tools of exploration, passports to inner sanctums, instruments for change. Their images are proof that photography matters-now more than ever.
-Quote from National Geographic
-Quote from National Geographic
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Janet Malcolm was only half-right. The photographer's other responsibility is where to stand.
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Ho hum..............more and more snap shots. Everyone's a photographer, so what's the deal? I breathe: write an article about me and a few friends that I have who also breathe. Snap. You're a photographer.
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Is it more difficult to take a picture with meaning now without succombing to digital shutter diarrhoea thanks to auto bracketing, instant do overs and infinte "ammo". When you were 10 or 12 years old and only had 2 kodak instatmatic 26 exp cassettes to last for a 2 week holiday seems almost surreal now.
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From this piece I've concluded the only way to travel without inviting snark is in a medically-induced coma.
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When the flicker of London sun falls faint on the Club-room's green and gold,The sons of Adam sit them down and scratch with their pens in the mould --They scratch with their pens in the mould of their graves, and the ink and the anguish start,For the Devil mutters behind the leaves: "It's pretty, but is but is it Art?" (Kipling)
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Great thoughts for me, describing my ambivalence, love and discomfiture with my profession - which involves cameras - that at times becomes my fun hobby or my "escondite" or excuse for bike ride or way to interact with people yet keep a distance, my crutch as well as my window to the world and my power. Thanks mon.
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Photography makes for a 'great walk'. I don't know anything that better provides the means & motivation to engage with the environment from the perspective of truly observing it - observing every detail, how the elements of the situation evolve, and disengaging from the clock. But the balance between observation and other ways of enjoying the circumstances is always a negotiation.
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What is the best road trip? I think it is a loop around Texas (excluding the panhandle), no?
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When I travel, I have some non-photography days. I have some non-photo experiences, like a mule ride. When you have a camera, you are always looking for a shot, at some level. This can get tiresome. On the other hand, when you look back at old photos, you see things you didn't notice at the time, and you remember what happened. Especially nice for places you never expect to be again.
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