Originally Posted by
Peter Lewin
Ken, Continuing with the discussion from the LF thread, and your "doorway #34," there were actually two themes being explored: intent and emotion. What I see in a number of your images is a distinct "intent," even if the image does not grab me emotionally. You often have prints which show a formal geometric organization, the interplay of light and dark, and above all texture and a precision of shades of grey. While neither of the last two prints you have posted in this thread appeal to me emotionally, I immediately recognize them as your work, and appreciate them as being extremely "photographic," i.e. emphasizing characteristics unique to our medium. Your attraction to displaying nuances of texture remind me of many of the sculptural works at the Naguchi Museum, where much of his work is specifically about texture, rather than form, but is successful precisely because of that.
Mirror Lake, Mount Watkins
Ansel Adams, 1925
At one end of the spectrum we find the majority of photographers, who search for an outstanding and recognizable subject and attempt to make a competent representation from the best vantage point. I consider much of Ansel Adam's work in this category: fairly objective renditions of extraordinary scenery. When it works, the photograph is like a transparent glass: we gaze through it onto the subject and savor it.
Harlan, Kentucky
Aaron Siskand, 1951
At the other end of the spectrum are photographers like Aaron Siskind whose subjects are often unrecognizable and of secondary importance at best. Instead, the elements of design are highlighted to the point where the photo takes on a beauty of it's own, in spite of the subject as it were. When this approach succeeds, we look past the subject and savor the sheer musical play of composition, textures, forms, tones, etc.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Hollywood
Edward Weston, 1939
Personally I admire photographs which function at the intersection of these two approaches, like this one by Edward Weston.
I was unfamiliar with Naguchi's work but looking online I find it a bit sterile at times (but then much of contemporary design is sterile and getting more sterile every day).
I suspect that when our own photos don't work it's often because we've been so taken by one extreme that we overlook the other: the result is that they don't appeal, as you said... "emotionally".
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