"Most "landscape" and "street" photography has always seemed derivative and redundant to me so my own efforts have been intentional, even planned. I think that attitude/approach is characteristic of commercial photographers, not amateurs. As a former commercial photographer I suspect that my peers put more energy into experimentation than into Photrio-style categories...few were into decorative images."
jtk, I agree - while I still appreciate and admire good street and landscape photography I have difficulty in moving myself to shoot as I once did as an aspiring professional (both in quantity and asthetic) simply because of it's derivative nature, as you said.
Having stepped away the aspect that brought me back is precisely the desire to create an image in print rather than merely "capture" the world in print.
I was thinking of Salgado's "Workers" or "Migrations" series or anything in National Geography (etc) and how the thematic aspect of journalistic work is so important - but that isn't really movement. It's part politics and craft. I love seeing the world where I am not and like so many others I will always be drawn to photographs in this category and think it is necessary. I just don't want to make these images.
I'm just excited to experiment again for the first time.
The technic of the craft will drive the product which binds the practitioners by method, but because it is so mechanically bound I wonder if artistic "movement" is possible in this way.
jtk, I agree - while I still appreciate and admire good street and landscape photography I have difficulty in moving myself to shoot as I once did as an aspiring professional (both in quantity and asthetic) simply because of it's derivative nature, as you said.
Having stepped away the aspect that brought me back is precisely the desire to create an image in print rather than merely "capture" the world in print.
I was thinking of Salgado's "Workers" or "Migrations" series or anything in National Geography (etc) and how the thematic aspect of journalistic work is so important - but that isn't really movement. It's part politics and craft. I love seeing the world where I am not and like so many others I will always be drawn to photographs in this category and think it is necessary. I just don't want to make these images.
I'm just excited to experiment again for the first time.
The technic of the craft will drive the product which binds the practitioners by method, but because it is so mechanically bound I wonder if artistic "movement" is possible in this way.