WW1 landscapes

[yellowcatt]

Pinhole photograps taken this year at the site of the battle for Passchendaele by New Zealand photographer Brett Killington:

Dead Link Removed

 

[AgX]

I know the region and can confirm that aside of war-cementaries and the respective road-signs all over there is hardly anything that reminds the uninitiated of what happened there before.

Chosing the perspective of a trenched soldier is one possible approach.
The way he photographed those views, they lose any reference to that place in location and time.

A lack, or a universal approach to war?



(Be aware that aside of those "landscape" views he also did more documentary work designated "tunnels".)

 

[yellowcatt]

The tunnel photographs were more interesting, as you say the "landscape" views lacked any identifying geographic features and could have been any number of locations.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Worst quality and composition I have ever seen. May be something wrong at IE but what I see is terrible. If these photographs echo in APUG , What can not !

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Reading his introduction the entire body takes on a significant meaning. Creative and unique.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I have seen many excellent pinhole photographs but these are the worst I have ever seen. Perhaps a problem with the scans?

 

[AgX]

With exposure times of 24h under natural lighting a low contrast image has to be expected.

 

[Tom1956]

Terrible. Total waste of film and my time to look at it.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

People, he was not attempting pretty chocolate box landscapes here. I'm not overly enamored with them but respect it as a project and the historical perspective he was attempting. But really? Waste of film? Worst ever? A bit harsh and over the top I think...

 

[Tom1956]

C'mon. "Documentary photography" is a term that connotes a serious intent. Mixing pinhole cameras with that makes it into just playing games. Piddling around. I see no redeeming quality in this repeated infatuation with re-inventing the wheel. So all of us in the photographic "know", know a tiny pinprick in an oatmeal tube can cast an image. So what? Non-photographic people don't know that. All they see is a blurry picture. And all I see is a blurry picture. Pointless.
If you want to do a documentary of the locations of trench warfare, get a camera with a lens and get busy.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Totally agree with Tom, good introduction make you win a job or school but does not keep you there.

 

[Marc B.]

The way he photographed those views, they lose any reference to that place in location and time.

...as you say the "landscape" views lacked any identifying geographic features and could have been any number of locations...

Worst quality and composition I have ever seen.

I have seen many excellent pinhole photographs but these are the worst I have ever seen.

Terrible. Total waste of film and my time to look at it.

I have to agree. The images are poor examples of what can be achieved with a camera...pinhole or not.
Possibly there is something to learn from these images, though...aside from his poor composition.

Longer exposure times maybe...on a brighter day? Was there camera-motion blur in those images?
The pinhole itself that he used may have issues. Pinhole too large? Pinhole not perfectly round?
The inner edge of the pinhole may have burrs, and/or the wafer used to make the pinhole was too thick?

Marc

 

[250swb]

I saw the photographs in an entirely different way.

They are from a soldiers point of view. The soldier has no clear idea of what is going on, their only hope of survival is to keep their head down. They have little or no knowledge of the landscape around them, and even if they had been there before the shells started falling the landscape would have soon become featureless. The soldiers days would be grey, monotonous, lacking in anything pretty.

So I think Killington is using the expressive power of the photograph to reflect these points, purposely avoiding your average chocolate box clarity where you can point at something identifiable, because there was nothing a soldier could identify with, everything was alien, except the prospect of death.

So I really don't know what you think can be achieved by using a lens and making topographic records of the places (besides which it has been done before). There is no point at all in technical mastery if that is all you've got, and I'd say there was more technical mastery in Killington's pictures in discovering an image form that expressed the soldiers perspective than knowing what happens when you stop the lens down to f/32 and use a few camera movements. Just a few people know the rules well enough to know how to break them, who go out on a limb and be brave enough to translate a feeling and sense of alienation into a photograph, and I think he succeeds.

Steve

 

[SMBooth]

I like your thought process Steve.

 

[TheToadMen]

I saw the photographs in an entirely different way.

They are from a soldiers point of view. The soldier has no clear idea of what is going on, their only hope of survival is to keep their head down. They have little or no knowledge of the landscape around them, and even if they had been there before the shells started falling the landscape would have soon become featureless. The soldiers days would be grey, monotonous, lacking in anything pretty.

So I think Killington is using the expressive power of the photograph to reflect these points, purposely avoiding your average chocolate box clarity where you can point at something identifiable, because there was nothing a soldier could identify with, everything was alien, except the prospect of death.

So I really don't know what you think can be achieved by using a lens and making topographic records of the places (besides which it has been done before). There is no point at all in technical mastery if that is all you've got, and I'd say there was more technical mastery in Killington's pictures in discovering an image form that expressed the soldiers perspective than knowing what happens when you stop the lens down to f/32 and use a few camera movements. Just a few people know the rules well enough to know how to break them, who go out on a limb and be brave enough to translate a feeling and sense of alienation into a photograph, and I think he succeeds.

Steve

+1

Try to look at it as more than just a technical exercise. Like a form of pictorialism or even a poetical photographic expression, but not a documentary.
Then decide if he succeeded in his original intend and if you like it or not.
Subjective as it may be.

 

[abeku]

I like this work too. The tunnel project is a nice documentary but the pinhole work has a more defined emotional awareness thanks to it's pictorial qualities.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

+1

Try to look at it as more than just a technical exercise. Like a form of pictorialism or even a poetical photographic expression, but not a documentary.
Then decide if he succeeded in his original intend and if you like it or not.
Subjective as it may be.

Well-articulated.

 

[removed account4]

i liked the landscapes,
i wish there were more than just a handful of them.
i'd love to see a whole room filled with them.
the tunnels .. too much glaring colour, not enough dismal grey.

 

[realart21]

Stunning photos .

 

[Regular Rod]

I saw the photographs in an entirely different way.

They are from a soldiers point of view. The soldier has no clear idea of what is going on, their only hope of survival is to keep their head down. They have little or no knowledge of the landscape around them, and even if they had been there before the shells started falling the landscape would have soon become featureless. The soldiers days would be grey, monotonous, lacking in anything pretty.

So I think Killington is using the expressive power of the photograph to reflect these points, purposely avoiding your average chocolate box clarity where you can point at something identifiable, because there was nothing a soldier could identify with, everything was alien, except the prospect of death.

So I really don't know what you think can be achieved by using a lens and making topographic records of the places (besides which it has been done before). There is no point at all in technical mastery if that is all you've got, and I'd say there was more technical mastery in Killington's pictures in discovering an image form that expressed the soldiers perspective than knowing what happens when you stop the lens down to f/32 and use a few camera movements. Just a few people know the rules well enough to know how to break them, who go out on a limb and be brave enough to translate a feeling and sense of alienation into a photograph, and I think he succeeds.

Steve

+1

My only criticism is that the images are presented in too small a format...

RR

 

[Guillaume Zuili]

I saw the photographs in an entirely different way.

They are from a soldiers point of view. The soldier has no clear idea of what is going on, their only hope of survival is to keep their head down. They have little or no knowledge of the landscape around them, and even if they had been there before the shells started falling the landscape would have soon become featureless. The soldiers days would be grey, monotonous, lacking in anything pretty.

So I think Killington is using the expressive power of the photograph to reflect these points, purposely avoiding your average chocolate box clarity where you can point at something identifiable, because there was nothing a soldier could identify with, everything was alien, except the prospect of death.

So I really don't know what you think can be achieved by using a lens and making topographic records of the places (besides which it has been done before). There is no point at all in technical mastery if that is all you've got, and I'd say there was more technical mastery in Killington's pictures in discovering an image form that expressed the soldiers perspective than knowing what happens when you stop the lens down to f/32 and use a few camera movements. Just a few people know the rules well enough to know how to break them, who go out on a limb and be brave enough to translate a feeling and sense of alienation into a photograph, and I think he succeeds.

Steve

Very well put. Thank you.