Why View The Forum? Out Of Country

[rdenney]

Do you worry that you're leaving out your experience of other people in the process? (aside from the ignoring part, of course)

Another person's experience you're dealing with is the viewer's. Even when that viewer is you, it's not the same you that took the photograph.

(I hope this doesn't come off as combative, I'm genuinely curious.)

I don't worry that I'm leaving out the experience of other people. That experience gets enough expression by me using words.

The notion that my role as a viewer is different than my role as a photographer is something I've been thinking about for a while. I don't seem to be able to edit myself, or see my own work as others see it. I suspect that's one reason why I'll never really be much good as an artist (or musician, for that matter). I seem to be able to evaluate the work of others with far more clarity of thought and response.

And it's okay to be combative on that topic, because I'm dealing with an internal combat myself. I know that many artists just plain don't care what others see in their work, but I don't know how one can communicate without trying to understand how receivers work in addition to transmitters, even if the receiver is built in. That's your point, but my receiver doesn't seem to be clearly tuned to my own frequencies.

Rick "not sure if that conflict inherent in artist-as-self-viewer knows any boundaries" Denney

[Lars Daniel]

Sheesh. I thought we'd already gotten past this.

Rick "who has to remind himself to read a whole thread before responding to part of it" Denney

You are damn right I didn´t read it. Did I miss anything?

[lenicolas]

Rick and Jack, you might be right when you relate my observations to Age rather than Citizenship.

I don't know many photographers under 30 who use LF.
In the photoschool I atended, only 2 of us students owned a 4x5.

It might also be because every 25 y.o seems to own a car in the USA while -at least in paris- most of us don't.
I'm turning 27 soon and i don't even have a driving license... This has an obvious influence on my photography : it's very hard for me to reach places where man's influence isn't visible, and I can't lug that much gear around... Hence my subjects and themes are closer to those of the "new topographics generation" than to ansel adams... And i'm less prone to experiment with diferent lenses and looks. I use only one lens for each format, (exept with digital 35mm that i shoot for a living).

To Brian : My french heart skipped a bit when you said that "the landscape [in the USA] is more varied than in Europe". I don't realy know how varied the american landscape is ; I've only visited the east coast... But I can assure you that Europe and France has a very diverse range of landscapes. An to top it all, some of the most iconic architectures in the world... I encourage you to check THIS PAGE witch features a hundred diferent french landscapes. I'll remind you that France is only 80% the size of Texas, so you'll recon that having such variety of landscapes in such a small country provides a bit more photographic oportunities than most american states... Yet, we don't have as much landscapes photogs as you do, so the answer to that question should be seek somewhere else...

[Brian C. Miller]

Yet, we don't have as much landscapes photogs as you do, so the answer to that question should be seek somewhere else...

They are in the coffee shops, discussing philosophy, instead of out and about, making grand photographs!

[NicolasArg]

Well, I'm a bit late, but would like to contribute with an answer.
I visit this forum in a perhaps futile attempt to not feel like a complete freak. I live in Argentina and personally know just ONE LF shooter. I am aware of perhaps 5-10 more, that's an amazing group of 15 lf photographers and 13 of them as far as I know are not even interested in sharing o joining a web based community. So a local LF forum would be a very empty place to hang out.
I'm also pretty young in LF terms (27yo) and a novice LF user and notice quite a few members here in the same position, so that's an additional plus.
Almost all I know about LF photography I picked it from AA books and forum reading so LFinfo is an incredible place to just quietly learn.
Now on photography, I shoot landscapes, almost exclusively and live in Patagonia, so the "non touched by the hand of man" landscape is pretty much what I'm trying to do, no big differences here.
What I do find a bit intriguing, especially browsing american web galleries and forums like NPN, is the american passion for icons and tripod holes. I admire and follow quite a few american landscape photographers and notice they visit the same places during the same season year after year, producing extremely beautiful and technically perfect images but from the same locations that everybody else. From time to time I get to see on flickr or youtube some american Icon and a line of photogs shooting almost the same composition.
It's almost like the whole US is about 5 national parks.
I'm not criticizing that approach* (and for sure there must be a perfect explanation for it) and enjoy every new photo I see, but it's a rather curious fact that I think is worth to mention in this thread
*and there are a lot of exceptions.

[Allen in Montreal]

The French often refer to their flag as the "Bleu, Blanc, Rouge", which are the same colours in reverse order, but the Union Flag........

Hold on one minute there Joanna!!

Les Blue Blanc Rouge, as spoken by the French,
refers to the greatest hockey team every to skate on ice!
(even if we have sucked most the last few years, but out of the 101 yrs we have been skating, it is a small slump)








The French, on a per captia basis, have a very high ratio, if not the highest ratio, of:

Photo enthusiasts
Great food
Great wine
Great looking woman

So the rest of you can stand down,
cause you are all getting way too worked up,
lets all shoot a picture, all over the globe tomorrow and on Dec. 1st post a World LF Day collection!

[jan labij]

I must say, this has been an enlightening story-line on this thread. Not to oversimplify, I take landscapes because something in the scene resonates within me. I use so-called LF (4X5's) because I'm too old and racked up to drag a 5X7 or 8X10 long distances from the car. If I really gotta hoof it, I use a voightlaender 3 1/4 by 4 1/4 and a light tripod. I don't think about if someone else puts human artifacts in his photos. I just shoot what I "dig", and if someone else likes it, fine.

[Brian C. Miller]

I encourage you to check THIS PAGE witch features a hundred diferent french landscapes.

OK, I looked at every one of those. Each is shot in the late morning, noon, or early afternoon. Nice photographs, but I wouldn't call them dramatic. You guys really need a landscape dramaticist. Maybe that is what seperates US and French photography. The French landscape dramaticists are all painters.

I found Patrick Desgraupes' web page, who works in 4x5. (I'm still waiting for his Flash site to load. *sigh*) Looks like Patrick is a color-only photographer. He has some very good color photographs. I wonder if color is actually sort of a crutch, or maybe it's like sugar in a recipe.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I live in Argentina and personally know just ONE LF shooter. I am aware of perhaps 5-10 more, that's an amazing group of 15 lf photographers and 13 of them as far as I know are not even interested in sharing o joining a web based community. So a local LF forum would be a very empty place to hang out...I shoot landscapes, almost exclusively and live in Patagonia, so the "non touched by the hand of man" landscape is pretty much what I'm trying to do...

Congratulations; please continue learning and pursuing fine work. From the perspective of this US photographer more than twice your age, you're in an enviable position. Someone in Patagonia with so few other LF photographers around has great potential to make magnificent, human-free images that don't require having found others' tripod holes. Enjoy!

[roteague]

Now on photography, I shoot landscapes, almost exclusively and live in Patagonia, so the "non touched by the hand of man" landscape is pretty much what I'm trying to do, no big differences here.

Patagonia is on my list of places I want to visit; just keep on posting photos!!