Recording Instinct

[Mark Sawyer]

"The instinct to record."

There could be quite a bit read into that little phrase. Recording whatever we choose is the first thing we do in photography, our first instinct. That is the snapshot phase, where we record images of our friends, our car, our pets, our house... and end up with a catalog dry to everyone but us and those with a personal interest in our lives. That is the initial instinct, to record as a simple, utilitarian thing. The equivalent of such a photograph of a female in language is to point at her and say, "That's her."

But we hopefully go on from there, in language to develop complex sentences, then paragraphs, essays, books... We start using similes and metaphors, and maybe, if it's in us, our language becomes lyrical, poetic. Instead of "that's her," it becomes, " But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid are more fair than she..."

Instead of making snapshots of Charis, EW took her to the sand dunes.

The instinct is still there. There is an inherent instinct we react to that sparks the image strongly in our minds, and so we create the image on film, then paper. It is still a record, but also an interpretation, an expression, a metaphor, a poem, perhaps, if we're lucky, an epiphany.

My epiphanies tend to have dust spots...

[John_4185]

What a wonderful forum this is.

This thread, as well as many others, are a source for a book; a good book. The views invite print in the real world as much as the contributors' prints do. Will it ever happen? Should it? I think it should.

[John Kasaian]

I understand the 'need to record' but to my eye, I don't like to manipulate an image to 'make it mine.'

I just don't see it as 'mine' other than, for instance, I shot it.

I don't like manipulating an image unless it is to overcome a problem---like I know the sky will be washed out so I filter accordingly. I try to avoid over filtration.

I see a landscape as something I enjoyed immensly, and I shoot it so I can show it and say
"Hey, is this neat or what??" More like a little kid showing a crayon drawing than an artist, I guess. Or maybe a hunter. Man-made thats quickly succumbing stuff is different. I approach it as a record---especially is it concerns some scene I remember growing up. I think what I want to say is:

"This is/was real. It really looked like this."

I'm not sure what I think, deep down, of still life or portraits (which is probably why I don't do too much of that work.)

Religious experience? I don't know---maybe a little but I think thats from being out in God's creation rather than having anything to do with me and my 'dorff. I know a Horn player that says his music is a religious experience, and the louder he plays the more religious it gets.

I don't know about that, however darkroom work is pretty contemplative for me since the boom box broke. I relish the silence late at night (but maybe thats because I live with a very loud family ;-)

[Steve Clark]

Unless the photograph is merely a snapshot to record an event or an object, I tend to try and photograph how the scene "felt" to me. That feeling may be influenced by light, weather conditions, ( I love foul weather) or perhaps a particular expression, etc... Oddly enough, some of the things that I`ve felt good about , were not worth printing, and others that left little impression at the time of exposure, were in the end, fairly successful.

[Mark Sawyer]

"This thread, as well as many others, are a source for a book; a good book. The views invite print in the real world as much as the contributors' prints do. Will it ever happen? Should it? I think it should." -jj

A wonderful photography book would hold a photographer's images accompanied by an edited commentary by the contributors here. The back-and forth, differing perspectives and aesthetic arguments would offer so many insights, not just on the work, but on how works can be seen. I can't quickly think of any photography or art book with such a format. Too bad.

But I'd prefer my comments be printed on a soft, absorbant paper and, in tribute to EW, kept near an old escusado...

[Robert McClure]

Great comments all, I think.

Speaking of books, what about John Szarkowski's "Looking at Photographs?"

When I first stumbled across that book years ago at my local library I was enthralled by it. I studied all 100 photographs and read each and every word of commentary by the author. It was then and there I began to realize how miraculously powerful and wonderful the photograph could be. I had never before imagined that a black and white, two dimensional picture could be so filled with meaning.

What first moved you?