circumscribed photography

[scootermm]

I like to type out my thoughts on photography and art. Its, at most, a release for me and gives me the opportunity to try and make sense of the thoughts and ideas in my head.

Nonetheless, I thought I would share a bit I wrote down today. I added it to my thoughts page on my website. But wanted to post it here on APUG and see if it would/could facilitate some discussion on the concepts I touch on.

Keep in my this is all personal thought-waxing-feelings-BSing.

Circumscribed Photography
I don’t know about you, but I get rather overwhelmed with the seemingly limitless photographic world we live in, potential photographs are EVERYWHERE. I’ve recently come to the realization that I could (and maybe will) never leave the state borders of Texas when photographing and I would never run out of subject matter that feels worthy of capturing on film. Our immediate surroundings, no matter how mundane (or visually rich) they might seem, are limitless in their photographic potential.
It seems to be so very apparent what Paul Strand once said “The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep”. He’s right.
I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of photographing within a contained space. My first exhibit was a series of images all taken within a small sculpture garden. There was so much to be seen and discovered in that amazingly small, yet visually limitless, space. I could likely still be photographing there and not have run out of possibilities. Gaining an intimate knowledge of a place seems a prerequisite to fostering a deep relationship with that space, a requirement in having a muse of sorts.
Oakwood cemetery has undoubtedly been that muse for the last month. Every weekend, I wake up early on sat morning, I load my film holders, and I drive the short 2 miles up I35 to the MLK exit. I drive into the cemetery, I pick some random side road into the plots and within 30ft I’ve stopped my truck due to something visually whispering at me “psst… over here.” Sometimes I never make it more than a radius of 25yds from that first “psst” and I’ve already shot all 4 of my negatives, and am anxiously ready to develop the film. Often times, these steps will get repeated on the following Sunday morning, or even on a Friday morning when I’ve taken the day off from work.
Undoubtedly though, whether it be a Fri/sat/sun morning, by mid afternoon I’ve got 4 negatives, freshly developed, washed, and hanging while they dry. By the following morning I’ve often got 4 finished platinum/palladium prints hanging on the drying line from the previous days outing. The stack of prints is turning into a coherent and rather intimate portfolio of the beauty I’ve discovered in this old cemetery, one that holds a rather strong connection to my heart.
Without these countless visits and the countless hours, I don’t feel I could have uncovered the beauty of this place. It takes time and effort to gain understanding and feeling in any relationship, whether with a friend, a loved one, or even an old cemetery. There’s a dialogue that occurs (not unlike a relationship with a wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, or friend) between yourself and your subject. One that I personally feel can’t come over the course of a long weekend or a 2 week trip somewhere. You learn about the place, you learn about its relationship with sunlight and shadow, you learn about its dialogue with the earth and wind and rain, you learn about its small hidden secrets randomly stumbled upon, you learn about its neglected parts and its well cared for parts, you learn about its protectors and its enemies.
Yet these all take time. Time and commitment allow for the depth and intimacy needed to achieve something more than the cursory.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Matt- I applaud you for having the discipline to stick to your project goal and to keep returning to the same place every weekend. It is too easy to throw a camera into a bag, hop in a car/bus/train/plane and go somewhere you've never been before, and start shooting away. Both methods can be successful, but they have very different mindsets to succeed - one is about knowledge, the other, experience (in the sense of the act of experiencing).

 

[Tim Boehm]

I've come to the same conclusion. I recently attended a class that John Sexton had at Foto3. He said photographic opportunities are literally "in your back yard." He also encouraged us to first get to know an area, even without a camera. He talked about a field of aspen he walks through near Aspen, Colorado, but he hasn't yet taken a picture there; he's getting to know it first.

John also read a letter that Ansel Adams wrote in response to another photographer. That other photographer was shooting in some far part of the world, it might have been India, and suggested Ansel go there. Ansel said he would love to see that area, but had plenty to photograph locally.

 

[David Brown]

“I don’t know about you, but I get rather overwhelmed with the seemingly limitless photographic world we live in, potential photographs are EVERYWHERE

Yes they are.



“It takes time and effort to gain understanding and feeling … You learn about the place ...

“Time and commitment allow for the depth and intimacy needed to achieve something more than the cursory.”

I agree with all that you’ve said (including the parts I edited out). I live near a small lake in the middle of a large city (White Rock in Dallas). When we first moved here, I thought I would make a project of the lake, but I never really have. (It has become my “known” place for “testing”, however – whether materials or hardware.) What I found is that it is such a popular place, that it is photographed to the extreme – everybody “does” White Rock!

I am beginning to make an effort, though, to do more set-ups, or “still life” things, but of more or less mundane objects – simply photographing the light and shape and not the whole of the thing. I've also started to shoot really close to the house. We'll see ...

You have rightly identified the myth that photographers have to travel to get good pictures. It’s old Ansel again. All those Yosemite pictures, but people forget that he LIVED there! So, we all go to Yosemite (as we should), but feel strange if we don’t do serious photography, when we probably should just enjoy the scenery.

You have also identified one of the challenges and paradoxes that you and I share in our collaboration on a certain project. We have to travel to a location, and then take what we find when we get there. We’ve produced some remarkable images in doing this, but what if we could stay at any one of these places for days on end? Another of our collaborators even said this in our video in a way: something to the effect that he could just stay in the one building and never exhaust all of the possibilities. Yet, necessity makes us move on.

So maybe having a project where we don’t have to move on is the antidote to that. You’ve made yours, and I need to really dig into mine.




“ … by mid afternoon I’ve got 4 negatives, freshly developed, washed, and hanging while they dry. By the following morning I’ve often got 4 finished platinum/palladium prints."

OK, this discipline and success rate only makes me want to slap you. (just kidding) :rolleyes:

 

[Toffle]

Very well said.

You, sir, are a photographer.

 

[Richard Wasserman]

I couldn't agree with you more. I used to wander about as many photographers do looking for photographs. Several years ago I came to the realization that I was doing a lot of driving and photographing randomly, not in depth. Since then I have been working on fairly narrowly defined projects, that in my case are usually, but not exclusively location oriented. I will work extensively on each project, sometimes for years, returning until I feel that I have done all I can, or I need to move on. It is amazing how by concentrating on a small area your vision expands. I have several of these ideas in work at any one time, but usually concentrate heavily on one at a time. Changing my way of working has been probably the most significant event since I learned how to develop film, and the quality of my photography has improved dramatically.

Richard Wasserman

 

[colrehogan]

Undoubtedly though, whether it be a Fri/sat/sun morning, by mid afternoon I’ve got 4 negatives, freshly developed, washed, and hanging while they dry. By the following morning I’ve often got 4 finished platinum/palladium prints hanging on the drying line from the previous days outing. The stack of prints is turning into a coherent and rather intimate portfolio of the beauty I’ve discovered in this old cemetery, one that holds a rather strong connection to my heart. [/I]

This whole routine blows my mind and I wish I was that methodical. You are certainly dedicated.

My routine is more like shoot one day, then develop a week or two (possibly even a month or two) later. Maybe get around to printing (but not all negs are necessarily keepers). Probably never get around to scanning and posting images on website. :rolleyes:

Great job, Matt!

 

[Trevor Crone]

How right you are. A photographer friend said to me some years ago now, "when you start to appreciate the common place, the very world we see when we open our front door, the flood gates open for there are pictures everywhere". How true this is.

 

[Steve Smith]

I live on an island about 26 miles across and 16 miles north to south so unless I leave the island by boat, everything is in 'my back yard'.

Most evenings I do the same six mile coastal walk (mainly for excercise rather than for photography) and despite the fact that I have taken a camera out and made many photographs in the same area, each time I go out without a camera I wish I had one with me because of the changing light or state of the tide which makes things look slightly different to the last time or something new which I have discovered despite being there many times before.

I would love to travel the world and photograph it but at the moment I can't afford to so I will have to stay local.


Steve.

 

[photomc]

And just think, there are still the changes of the seasons to provide new gifts of light and shadow, matt. There is much to be said about processing the negatives soon after you expose the films to light, it is the one thing about an overnight trip that seems wrong. From the time the darkslide is placed back into the holder, I am ready to develop that negative and after the car is unloaded and the gear put away, the first thing I will do is go into the darkroom and start to prepare the chemistry for development.

As to the never ending subject matter, yes there is always a photograph waiting to be made. Now if we "see" it or not depends on many factors - plus the old saying "before you trip the shutter, look behind you" is quite true. There are at times an abundance of photographs above our head, to our left and right, behind us and even under our feet - IF we allow our eyes (or is it our inner eyes) to see them.

Great topic Matt, and one that should keep us all busy thinking about....The discipline you show each week (each day as I know from being around you ) is something I wished I was better at, so now you have offered your thoughts and perhaps provoked a spark. (of course having a new camera around won't hurt either)

 

[SuzanneR]

Sustained commitment can yield extraordinary results! I have been exploring the same subject for several years, and plan to continue with it for at least another few years. It's great to see a body of work come together as a cohesive portfolio. I find it deeply satisfying. And there's always more to explore.

One thing I will say about this... if you revisit the same subject, it will of necessity, force you to find new pictures there. You don't want to make the same picture over and over, and if you were to, say, photograph all the sculpture gardens in Texas... you may find that you are repeating yourself visually. It's an easy thing to fall into, and the work won't have the depth.

Good thread, Matt.

 

[Thanasis]

I have had a related experience but unfortunately not with photography.

For about six months , I took a drawing pad with me to work and while waiting for the bus that was going to take me back home each evening, I would sketch, carefully and slowly, the seemingly non-descript urban street scene i saw in front of me each evening. I usually was only able to get about three or four minutes of drawing in each time before the bus arrived and I would pack my notebook in my bag. I was determined to capture even the most minute crack in the road, the most distant tree and shadowy branch that i could see through the dim evening light. Naturally this took some time but after about a month, my relationship with the scene began to change in the most curious of ways. I began to experience what i saw in front of me through my drawing of it. In other words, what i saw in front of me, the street, kerb, streetlights, trees etc was somehow directly connected and dependent on my drawing. It almost felt as if i could change the street scene by merely changing how i drew it. I became less interested in drawing how i saw things and more interested in seeing things how i had drawn them. In this way, the beauty of the seemingly mundane and repetitive objects in front of me was uncovered forever.

The challenge for me now is to try to create something that not only pleases me but communicates the beauty that i see, to others also.

 

[colrehogan]

I had a similar experience yesterday. A friend of mine and I are planning to go to this one area to photograph this weekend, but neither of us had been there. I had my d*****l with me since I had done some shooting of a ribbon cutting ceremony at work. Anyway, it was pouring down rain, but I decided to go to where we had in mind to shoot and see what was there or whether it was accessible - there has been a lot of flooding here recently. Better then than when it was 90+.

I had been going to this particular park a lot in the last 9 months, but had never been there when it was raining. The whole character of the place was different. However, I came home a drowned rat as I didn't have a raincoat, only an umbrella, which doesn't help much when the wind is blowing.

 

[scootermm]

Nice to hear thoughts from others and to hear that I'm not bat sh#t crazy in my train of thought
Would be very interested to hear the flipside of this.
I don't travel much. The times I have traveled were long before my photographic pursuits. Since diving into photography I've spent damn near all my time in the state of Texas. Oddly enough, I don't hold much desire to travel, and when I do get the chance to leave for a week or so, I head to locales still within texas, but rarely able to visit (big bend area and such).
I was in Massachusetts for the holidays this past xmas. That was the first time, since I began shooting LF/ULF, that I had travelled out of state with my camera. I enjoyed it immensely, but oddly enough, the images I created did not feel as though they were mine.
Lots of people travel and do photography, makes me wonder the mindset and flipside to the discussion. Its a point of view that I have intense difficulty grasping.
In my initial post, I fully admit that it is one-sided, as it should be. Since it was merely from my point of view. Would love to hear from anyone that feels strongly about the ability to create truly personal work even when in unfamiliar territory.


PS. Mr Brown, when I said "I have 4 prints hanging the following morning"... they are finished prints... whether that is a high success rate or whether they are worthy of being called "good", well thats completely subjective

 

[mooseontheloose]

When I started shooting seriously, I considered myself (and probably still do) a travel photographer. As I was living abroad I considered everything around me as 'travel' subjects, even though I was a local for one or two years in any particular place. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make good photos regardless of the conditions. Although I wasn't always successful, I learned a lot about seeing over the years.

However, I've come to the realization, like you, that going back to a particular location again and again can be a very rewarding experience. Seeing the effects of different light, weather, and seasonal changes keeps a 'regular' place full of fresh photographic opportunities, in addition to being forced to interact with the subject matter in a new way in order to avoid repeating oneself. In fact, I've come to the point now where I get frustrated when I travel because I can't stay and get to know one particular place really well. Although I still enjoy the challenge of trying to make good photos, I've realized that I've changed as a photographer and that the 'old' subject matter is not what I'm looking for anymore. I've only realized this recently, having looked at photos I took during a trip to the Netherlands. Part of the reason I went there was to photograph Amsterdam, a very photogenic city...and I took all of two photos while I was in the city. There just wasn't the time to get to know the city well enough to take meaningful (to me) photos.

Now that I'm back in Canada I'm looking forward to getting to know the area that I grew up in, and use it as a long-term photographic project. I know it will be a challenge for me, trying to see an old place with new eyes, but that's what I like about it.

 

[David Brown]

... if you revisit the same subject, it will of necessity, force you to find new pictures there. ... if you were to, say, photograph all the sculpture gardens in Texas... you may find that you are repeating yourself visually. It's an easy thing to fall into, and the work won't have the depth.

Ms. Suzanne:

Much grist for the thought mill. I am going to take your thought above and create a thread on our church project's "private" website because I think this is one of the issues we are having with the project. However, we don't need to hijack Matt's thread to work out our own stuff ...

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Nice to hear thoughts from others and to hear that I'm not bat sh#t crazy in my train of thought
Would be very interested to hear the flipside of this.
I don't travel much. The times I have traveled were long before my photographic pursuits. Since diving into photography I've spent damn near all my time in the state of Texas. Oddly enough, I don't hold much desire to travel, and when I do get the chance to leave for a week or so, I head to locales still within texas, but rarely able to visit (big bend area and such).
I was in Massachusetts for the holidays this past xmas. That was the first time, since I began shooting LF/ULF, that I had travelled out of state with my camera. I enjoyed it immensely, but oddly enough, the images I created did not feel as though they were mine.
Lots of people travel and do photography, makes me wonder the mindset and flipside to the discussion. Its a point of view that I have intense difficulty grasping.
In my initial post, I fully admit that it is one-sided, as it should be. Since it was merely from my point of view. Would love to hear from anyone that feels strongly about the ability to create truly personal work even when in unfamiliar territory.

I think it is entirely possible to create personal work when on the road - it has very much to do with your own way of seeing and composing. I think that most of my photos that I've taken on vacation have a common, recognizable element to the way they're photographed. It has to do with the way in which you compose a scene, the common elements that attract your eye, and the tones/colors with which you fill your images. The risk with that is in becoming a cliche - do all your images look so alike as to become interchangeable?

 

[doughowk]

A local photographer who travels alot recommends when visiting a city/place to 1st go to store that carries postcards. Then use those as guide for what/how to photograph. They would qualify as mementos but nothing deeper.

When I did travel alot, I preferred staying or revisiting an area as part of an exploration. They were still at the mementos level, but maybe a bit deeper.

Now that I've confined myself to this region for past few years, hopefully the images will have a deeper level of meaning or insight.

 

[CBG]

A lot said here fits very well. There are benefits to working on a really sustained personal project; one pass at things frequently isn't enough. I can't always get satisfying results on personal photography at the first go round.

The longer I photograph, the more I want to explore projects in depth. Now I try to think in terms of sustained projects that can yield a cohesive body of work.

In my work as a painter there's a lot of emphasis on finding a project one can chew on for years. I've found I learn more through working on a visual idea for long enough to work deeply on it.

Doing a little of this and a little of that has a danger of making you into a dabbler.

C

 

[ilya1963]

My 2 cents ...maybe an old penny

If you photograph light - subject , location is secondary , my 8x10 is a standard feature in my truck...

no matter when or where it's ready when I am...the key is "when I am"

ILYA