What are you photographing close to home?
Mike,
For 3.5 years I have been photographing the American Tobacco Factory in Durham NC (I live in Chapel Hill) that had been abandoned for 25 years, and now is being renovated. It is the site of the first tobacco factory started in 1874, and the home of Lucky Strike cigarettes. In different seasons I have explored some 20 acres of buildings, and produced over 700 negatives (4x5) and edited down to 60 prints. I am still photographing now as it is being renovated; not to have before and after pictures, but to show how the buildings have changed in feeling and character. Having a project of this type has taught me a lot about photography - and allowed me to grow in the art.
Get Ray McSavenny's book "Explorations", and see what he photographed in LA!
Sometimes by carefully studying things around you the photographs reveal themselves.
Regards,
Mike
What are you photographing close to home?
Congrats on the nice addition! For over 10 years the historic mining buildings in my home town have been a laboratory for my photography. Almost any time I get something new to try I head for the mining park. I've never had to photograph the same thing twice yet. Tonopah is full of artifacts left in a time warp since 1910. There's endless opportunity, all I have to do is open my eyes. I've learned to trust my peripheral vision. Countless times a photographable scene will align as I'm driving the back streets and the corner of my eye will pick something up. Sometimes I can't stop, but often I'll put the pick-up in reverse and go back for a better look to see if there's really something there. Finally, in the back yard there is a 1939 Mercury wheel and hub-cap with a WWII ma-pop tire left over from the rubber shortage that has been photographed dozens of times.
What are you photographing close to home?
Ruth Bernhard is very big on photographing the things in one's house. I've been told that she used to teach a course where the students had to pick an area within their house at the beginning of the course and then could photograph only within a 20 foot (or something like that) radius of that area for the entire semester.
What are you photographing close to home?
Mike,
Great question! The art of seeing begins in the most minute and mundane of things and places.
I've been working on learning how to use a 4x5 properly and since the camera I have is so heavy I've limited myself to using it in the front room of our home (much to the chagrin of my wife.)
My subject matter?... flowers and fruit. It's been a fun challenge but I'm enjoying it. And, since our house is 70 years old... there's ample other "stuff" to photograph too.
Whatever it is that you decide to photograph... have fun!
Cheers
What are you photographing close to home?
Look at the photographs of Orrit Raff. She photographs only in her 600 square foot apartment and her pictures are revelations. They are an inspiration.
What are you photographing close to home?
Michael - I searched for Orrit Raff (and variations on that spelling) in Google and got no results. Does she have a web site or is there some other way to view her work?
What are you photographing close to home?
Abelardo Morell is another photographer who has done fine work with things close at hand. One of my favorites is his photograph of a paper grocery bag:
http://www.abelardomorell.net/otherphotos8.html
What are you photographing close to home?
Cemeteries. They almost always have trees (hence shade). Especially if you live (as I do) in an area which gets snow. Only in b/w. Particularly in late afternoon.
Best wishes.
/s/ David Beal -- Memories Preserved Photograpy, LLC -- photo@worldnetoh.com
What are you photographing close to home?
Lately I have been obsessed by this cellular tower with a fake Washington monument shroud. Some elements of our formerly rural life still (for the moment) exist around it. It just strikes me as ironic. It's all in the eye and sensibility.
-j
What are you photographing close to home?
Generally, most things I photograph are within that 100 mile radius. Many are within 10 miles. With the crummy winter weather, I've been trying to do natural light still lifes in the house with things that are just laying around. I really like the idea of shooting in the house like was mentioned above.
I think too much has been made, both within the photo community and without, that only "famous places" can make good photographs. Its nice to go to Death Valley or Yosemite or Point Lobos. But its not necessary at all as many other famous photographs have shown.