nolaguy Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · How many of you out there have Invented / Created a totally new form of photographic Art? | |
nolaguy wrote:
So, for the sake of discussion, how many of us do reflect on the fact that some of our subjects... particularly iconic, well-known vistas, landmarks, buildings, etc, have been photographed thousands or millions of times before?
...most of which will have been under more favorable or interesting conditions than we are able to create or happen upon.
What do we achieve?... a meaningful personal memory?... a record of our witness?... our particular interpretation?
Or is it not about achievement? Is it simply I was there, I saw this, I had a camera and it's no big deal?
For those who reflect on these things and wish for something that feels more original, where do we turn? What do we do instead? And does it better satisfy?
Those questions resonate with me.
...Show more →
Okay, that brief banter was fun but to try to get back to something more meaningful, hoot hasn't objected to a bit of a tangent here so I'll quote my own reply and offer my thoughts.
When I decided to get back into photography in a more serious way, my two keen interests were architecture and people - portraiture, specifically. I had an entry-level DSLR around my neck a few years earlier in Venice and had the good fortune of some really moody fog one early morning in Venice. I loved the train station shots in particular - and from early childhood had an interest in certain genres of architecture.... annnd, I love old stuff. Things with history, and preferably decay.
The French Quarter, it's style, it's erosion, it's flavor and smell... goodness, it screams at me. First trip to Venice I was like, holy cow, this is the FQ on steroids.
Similarly, SF, NY, old barns, certain architectural styles (NOT, Frank Lloyd Wright, thank you very much) just massage my soul and tug at my heart.
So I get my first D7000 and shoot Italy, then New Orleans, and both episodes were hugely disappointing. Partially because I didn't really know what I was doing, but also because the weather didn't favor as it had during the aforementioned Venice trip.
I was so bummed. And it made me immediately think of how many countless images on poster.com there were of the shots I wanted to take that were $10 and likely better than I would ever capture if for no other reason than favorable weather.
That's a point we could debate and discuss ad nauseam, I know, but for me, the answer to my question above was to turn more of my energy and focus to what I could capture than no one else would - if only because I was there at that moment in time and no one else was - my other strong interest, portraiture.
I'll quit rambling on but it has been immensely joyful to me - to learn people and personalities and inflect my own eye into witnessing and recording their existence. Pity it's not more profitable, but it never fails to strum my heart and make me smile.
So, again guys and gals, what's your story?
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