I can't resist... so .... you went. Where did you go? a castle? ruin? historic site? landscape? Why there? An interest in the history of the place? a memory ? Something else? Once you got there what did you photograph? Buildings? People? Tourists? Ocean? Did you shoot in b/w or colour? Why one over the other?
Eh, look at the photograph?
Do you have a fave camera? What makes it a fave? How does it feel when you shoot? What decisions are you making with choice of film, lens, camera? When you printed what were you hoping for? Did you achieve it? Were you listening to music as you printed? What music? Did it evoke something particular in the print for you?
Fluffy, don't get me wrong, I know where you are coming from but sometimes I just wish people would look at the finished article, it's there cause I like. If the person looking at it likes it too that's great, if not, well stop looking and move on.
The whole Artists statement, reminds me of once when I was in school, in english class we were given an assignment, we had to write about something that happened during the summer holidays, I'm sure we have all done it :rolleyes:
Anyhow, I wrote about night I went fishing a got a bite on the line, after a few minutes of reeling in and a bit of a fight from the fish, the fight stopped and I assumed I had lost the catch. Anyhow I reeled in my line, put the rod on my shoulder and started walking home in the dark. A dog came out a gate and started to follow me barking, I ignored it until it started jumping at the rod at which point I discovered the fish was still on the line. I submitted the story, I was out sick the day the teacher brought back the stories and I heard that he had read mine to the class explaining how it symbolised the internal struggle of a teenager and when you think all is lost that sometimes it takes somebody else to point out that its not. Well, the teacher then spoke to me and asked what I was thinking when I wrote it, was I feeling down, was I listening to music, yada yada yada. I answered honestly, that it was a story about going fishing, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I remember my teacher being disappointed that he didn't have a young George Orwell in his class, but he then went on to say that he did feel that sub-consciously I was writing about other things. I always remember his disappointment and feel, that if he got something different from the story, who am I to take that away from him?
I'm absolutely not precious about my photography and I'm probably my own biggest critic, it takes a LOT to get me to hand a photograph on the wall of my house, family and friends have always been pushing me to hang more of them. I would find it very difficult to call my self an artist, I take pictures. Some I like, others don't, some others like and I don't. I tend to prefer to let people look at the picture and decide if they like what they see.
I can of course understand them wanting to know where it was taken and if they are a photographer what equipment was used, fairly minimal information. It's the whole, what mood I was in etc that wrecks my head
I suppose I tend to take the "here's a picture I took, I like it enough to show it to you, if you don't like it that's fine with me" approach. I take photographs for me, which is probably why I don't really show what I've taken, maybe not a very artistic approach, but that's just me, maybe if I was different I'd be a better photographer!
As I say, I know where you are coming from and have no problem with people looking at the more artistic side and the whole process, I guess it's something I need to work on.
David
The un-artistic one
