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Thread: Recording Instinct

  1. #1

    Recording Instinct

    I have to confess that as informative, as interesting, and as needful as the technical discussions on the forum are, my passions tend to lie in the "esthetics" or intangible issues of photography.

    It's taken me quite a while, and a lot of life experiences, to arrive a the point of needing what it is that photography seems to do for me.

    I am specifically thinking now of my instinct to record. When a particular scene captures my imagination I can feel my pulse quicken. As I look at the scene in reality, my brain and eyes give me a particular emotion. I have grown to have ability to visualize a print, and to consider the issues of shadow and highlight. I can plan and control and have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to wind up with. Or not!

    But there's something about making that scene my own, and exploiting a reality to gain a print, that really feels good, and real. Even spiritual, or beyond me, at times. And if I can wind up with a reasonably technically competent print, that's plenty or me. What would I do if I had to sell my work? I think I'd fail at blending business with photography. Yet I see others succeed at this very thing.

    I see so much great black and white photography. Often it is made by the most obscure of persons. What's really exciting for me is to then look at the world through their eyes.

    Then there's the idea that the longer I (and others) make photographs, the more our views of the world continue to evolve. I have wondered how something so subtle can prove so powerful at times.

    What do my words prompt you to write about?

  2. #2
    Scott Davis
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Washington DC
    Posts
    1,875

    Recording Instinct

    I think to me it is the exercise of constantly seeing. Making yourself consciously aware of how you see the world, and putting it down on paper in some kind of organized fashion. That's what does it for me. It's like writing, if you do it every day. It becomes a self-reinforcing action - seeing the world, recording what you see, and presenting it, so that you can become more focused (pardon the pun) and aware of what and how you see, so that the next time you do it, you do it "better" (more accurately to the way you look at and see things). The danger in this, of course, is that just like writing, you can wander so far down that path that you become sollipsistic and obscure in your referents, and your work becomes uninterpretable. I know that there are some things I look for and at, and that photographing what makes them interesting to me (light and shadow, texture, certain kinds of details, evidence of the way in which man has shaped/changed them, evidence of nature's reclaiming them, the effects of time, etc) helps me communicate that interest in a non-verbal, but very structured, way.

  3. #3

    Recording Instinct

    Thanks, Scott!

    There seems to be no real way for me to wrap my intellect around the ideas which you, Scott, and I have tried to write about. Words seem to only grasp at the ideas you and I have tried to express. This makes me think that I can only "do" what I do and enjoy that experience. To write about it and attempt to put it into words is a different matter than the actual doing.

    This is probably why I do what I do strictly for my own amazement. But I am open to others viewing my work. I hope they can take something from it. Like I was able to take from Walker Evans' work, for example.

  4. #4

    Recording Instinct

    Years ago when I had few responsibilities other than photography, I did see everything in terms of aesthetics, it was great! I always saw something new and interesting.

    These days, paying attention to details, traffic, work, people, housework, etc., does take away from that much of the time. Now I only notice things when I make time to get away.

    I'm hoping that when I retire I will still have the energy to get back to that "seeing", since I will have the time. I think I will, but until then, I'll have to make do with dividing my attention.

    By the way, back in those days much of the time something I thought was worth a photograph turned out not to be, once processed and printed. At least, not to others. It's good to take a step back also.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Apr 2004
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    832

    Recording Instinct

    Then there's the idea that the longer I (and others) make photographs, the more our views of the world continue to evolve. I have wondered how something so subtle can prove so powerful at times.

    What do my words prompt you to write about?


    Robert McClure

    Pervasive, bio-engineered networked cameras, a maturing vernacular, a growing disinterest in The Thing Itself.

  6. #6
    Scott Davis
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Washington DC
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    1,875

    Recording Instinct

    I think our sense of what is worth a photograph is something that evolves over time, and we shouldn't be so hasty to judge our vision, especially in hindsight and under the influence of others. It is a good exercise to go back and revisit work you've done and see if your way of seeing it changes so that you can execute it differently (either more accurately to your original vision of it or to a different vision of the same subject that more closely aligns with the way you see now), but don't discard your own vision just because other people don't see what you saw. Unless of course you've become such a navel gazer in your work that NOBODY can understand it.

    It's hard to conceptualize navel-gazing in photography, because it deals with representations of real-world objects (most of the time anyway). Unlike painting, where you can hurl some red latex on a white canvas and call it anything you want. I think it is possible, however, to get too caught up in photography - I could see someone like Andy Goldsworthy getting to that point, where maybe eventually you couldn't tell the difference between a photograph of one of his works and a photo of some patch of woods with no other human intervention. Most of us though are at no great risk of getting there.

  7. #7

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    Recording Instinct

    ...my passions tend to lie in the "esthetics" or intangible issues of photography.



    Photography gives us a chance to play with a lot of interesting processes, and leads to clearer seeing. The world doesn't change, but our appreciation of it improves over time, and our art improves over time. Because the end result is non-verbal, our appreciation and expression can reach beyond the limitations of the intellect, to the intangible. Without the intangible, a photographer is just a machine using a machine.

  8. #8

    Recording Instinct

    What do my words prompt you to write about?

    For one, they make me wish for a forum where such discussions are more prevalent than gear and technique.

    Most of my photography-related writing (see myarticles and newsletters) is along these lines. I actually find it as rewarding to write about these musings as I do capturing them on photographic media.

    Guy
    Scenic Wild Photography

  9. #9

    Recording Instinct

    What do my words prompt you to write about?

    The ideas, more than the words alone resonate with personal perceptions and beliefs that express themselves in photographs. Artists find a medium that best expresses thier vision. Minor White comes to mind. His prose was often unclear because he was trying to verbally express abstract concepts: a difficulty at the best of times but his photographs speak louder and longer.

    Thoughtful photographs, well seen and delivered, convey the essential vision of the photographer. Somewhere between the skill and the vision of the photogrpher is a potentially fruitful boundary land where beauty and meaning lie. The photograph is the medium, not the vision itself. But more importantly the photograph seems to be a springboard by which one enters into an experience of its own - different than the photograph itself and usually separate from the intentions of the photographer. But this only works if the photograph is good.

    You wrote: "What's really exciting for me is to then look at the world through their eyes". Part of what is exciting for me is to appreciate that another person's vision is only one of many perceptions that are possible of whatever he saw. Given the great diversity of individuals as well as possible perceptions I'm left with a great sense of wonder of all that is outside of me that is reflected in photographs they make. If I can express myself through a photograph I feel then that I'm in tune somehow with myself as well as with what I'm seeing and that particular moment of specialness is a gift for which I feel grateful and glad to be alive. Photography makes me a better human being.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    Recording Instinct

    Strange that writing and photography is so frequently associated with one another in this discussion. I personally have always felt that they were closely related to one another. Where one conveys thought and feeling in word-form, the other takes those same thoughts, feelings and emotions and "should" convey them in the same tangible form. When someone reads a poem, story, etc, the writing should evoke some emotion in the reader. Whether that emotion be anger, sorrow, joy, etc etc. If it does not, then it is nothing more than a grouping of words on a page. Does the writing evoke the same emotion in every reader? Generally, no. If it makes me angry, and makes you laugh, does it render it as no value to another? No. The writer has just produced a remarkable piece of literature, able to reach both ends of the spectrum. I believe a photo should evoke the same type emotions. Several photographers works discussed in this forum have stirred up a wide range of emotions. I have read postings that run the gamut from anger to laughable at the same photo, each unbelieving that the photographer would take such a shot. Have they taken a remarkable photo? I would think so. If it does not render some type of emotion in the viewer, good or bad, then it is nothing more than random spots on a previously good piece of paper.

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