one ring circus....

                                 

a few days ago i hung around "backstage" for about an hour at a small circus in Oaxaca...the ring master, trapeze artists, lion tamers, dancers, etc etc , live on the road...traveling in  small truck pulled  trailers going from town to town entertaining mostly children who love the "wild animals", death-defying high bar acts, and the often sad clowns who make them laugh....pure and simple entertainment is their business...

we have chatted a lot lately about being creative  "on the road" or drawing energy from familiar surroundings....obviously, different  strokes for different folks....whatever works, works....but, i am really interested in how you see your  work itself...the "function" of the work....the purpose...

the young woman above, about to go "on stage", is a performer...a bareback rider ...her skill is clearly "performance art"....she uses her costume, horse and  her body to entertain...some photographs are intended to communicate an idea or to journalistically portray an "event", some to show a physical place, some to explore  the "inner mind" of the photographer and some falling into the category of "performance"  itself..i.e. Cindy Sherman or Gregory Crewdson...

how do you see your own work?  does your work  communicate an idea, show what a place or person "looks like" or  do you see your photographs as living representations, or even as "objects" in and of themselves.... perhaps even becoming "pure entertainment" ? 

 

Comments

[marcin luczkowski]

How i see my work?
hmmmmm... as a place after passage of hurricane, I see my work as a big mess... piece of ideas... some of entertainment... definitely show places and persons looks like... and definitely is not "objects" themselfs...
My photography have no sense... no purpose... I'm even not photographer... I only take pictures frome time to time.

peace

[Aga Luczakowska]

When I was working for newspaper as a staff photographer i didn't see any sense of my work, that were just 1-day valid photographs... after 2 days nobody care for them...
now, I try to show some story... I don't want to take photographs only for my own pleasure... but i also see how hard is to make story... my work looks more like singe photographs, i don't have any finished story yet which bothers me a lot... but I am working on it...
I feel like my photographs are only pretty, so i need to do something with it...
but also... do you think young person is able to make important story? i think evething is about experience, also life experience... every single day i see new things, i understand more... after every trip abroad i have more open mind... so i hope soon i will be able to make some important story :-)
btw.. i am getting older... tomorrow i will be 27 :-) hehe

[david alan harvey]

MARCIN...

i think you take photographs more than from time to time!!! and you are definitely a photographer my friend...i would write more, but i have to catch a plane to Oslo...more later....

AGA...

Happy Birthday!!! please enjoy your very special day!!!

i am not so sure everything has to be so so "important"....who can define "important" anyway?? i think if you are seeing and feeling and believing, your work will be "representative" of who you are...and YOU are important!!!!

running..will write from Oslo....peace, david

[marcin luczkowski]

David

Safe fly! Come back to your "home" when you will be in Oslo. Here is too quiet without you.

Aga

Happy birthday!!

[Jonathan Castner]

I sometimes refer to myself as a professional producer of refrigerator art. Few things make me happier than to be at someone's home and see one of my photos on their fridge. That means that I captured something that means something to them. I love it when I'm somewhere and out of the blue someone approaches me and thanks me for the photo that I shot of their child/spouse/friend and says they bought 18 copies of the publication to send to their friends and family. That's pretty cool too.

That is because to me my work is about two things:
1) Showing people the world and moments in life as I see them - an emotional connection.
2) Revealing things that are hidden in plain sight that may enlighten the viewer in some way - an intellectual endeavor.

I feel that as an artist and more importantly as a journalist, I need to explain things. My photographs and stories are personal and they are art but their core is an attempt to establish some kind of dialog or thought process on the end of the viewer of my images. I never think of my work as entertainment but rather the visual musings of a curious wanderer intent upon better understanding this amazing and complex world.

[bobblack]

David:

just send u a quick note in reply to your question :)))...all is ok, no worries: make sure you sleep on the plane, amigo: YOU DESERVE IT! :))

As for the question above, I will drop back in a few hours and post something, about my own work and its "purpose" or rather, what i describe/imagine it as :)))...

got another writing obligation to fulfill, but will be back later, promise, tonight...

hugs
bob

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGA! :)))))))...SENDING YOU BIG RUSSIAN HUGS AND KISSES FROM MARINA, AND FROM ME: SLOPPY, WET IRISH ONES!

[david alan harvey]

JONATHAN....

nice tight summary of your thoughts...thank you...i love love refrigerator "art" too...by the way, do you know of an exhibition of refrigerator doors??? i vaguely recall hearing of such an exhibit, but cannot get a real handle on it...

BOB...

as usual, we all await your incite and wisdom....

cheers, david

[Bob black]

ok, i'll jump now, 'cause im afraid i might get distracted later with the other writing/photo thing, and have a family walk to start in 30 minutes, so here goes ;)))).....below...

by the way, Jonathan:

I LOVE THE IDEA OF REFRIDGERATOR ART as a personal helicon too :)))...that's pretty close to my own heart for sure :)),.

when i visit someone, i notice these things first: 1) any books around, if so what; 2) what's on the refridge, 3) does the bathroom look "lived in" or in a "magazine-state" (too manicured/cleaned), 4) what's on the walls of the home/apartment, 5) any photographs, personal/family or professional/artistic around, 6) any pets and 7) and drawings/paintings/art from kids in the house :)))

cheers
b

[Bob black]

My beloved Irish madman/wiseman/poet Seamus Heaney wrote the following poem, which (because i am a lesser poet and not yet drunk enough to sing out here against the darkness of the blancheness of the white page), I have always taken as a celestial navigational map for my own life. It speaks of my own awakening as, first, a writer and artist and later, now as a photographer, but above all as a person who has tried to sing out against things as way of trying to understand his life and the life in collision with others...

this poem, should act as a substitute for my own battered and battering soul...so, to talk about what my work means to me, i have to ask for Seamus' help:

Personal Helicon

As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.

Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

[Aga Luczakowska]

David... if you say that it has to be true... so my work is important :-)

David, Marcin and Bob - thank you!!! :-)

Marcin and Bob - we have to meet some day!!! some day soon! :-) (Marcin, we live so close, we really should meet! let me know when you will be in silesia region)

[Marcin Luczkowski]

Aga

now I'm prisoner... no freedom... no traveling... ehhhh

[Bob black]

When I joined LightStalkers 3 years ago, i had to supply a "biography." I've always been a bit unsure of these often dandified and odd things. Mostly, I have never trusted my own, nore relied much upon it. I am often not sure which i trust least or which i dislike more, the "artist statement" or the "artist biography." If fact, I rarely read biographies, for I dont see them generally as very helpful, though i know they calm a certain quench we all have for details, especially details of those we love or know or admire, hoping that somehow if we can, for a moment or two, step inside the shoes of another, put ourselves, peeled away and loose, inside the skin of another, as if the skin of a lion, we should be able to better recognize and understand the what and who of the other, maybe for this will shed some other strain upon the who and what of ourselves. But time has only, at least to me, shorn this illusion away. I still hunger hunger for details of people i know and love, details about their life and all that happened to them before the I of me entered the You of them. I still ask lots of questions and often feel bereft that, with those who are now a part of my life, I hadnt been apart of them. but how does one begin to explain and detail all that has shaped and made us, all the voices and lives, t he scents and scars, the moments lost and upeneded, the treasures and the tricks, the drives and dives, that have congealed and constituted themselves into the now of who we are...one winces the moment one begin to think, let alone, speak upon this...when one adds to the equation the act of "tangible memory" (writing, photography, drawing), it becomes even odder, sadder, stranger....I do not write or photograph to remember, but to accomplish something else...to set the space around my own life and my own unknowing singing....

with that in mind, i wrote the following as my biography for Lightstalkers:

I am blind. How then do I begin to account from the un-seeing? If not inside the chaotic and frantic harbor of our body, where then can we seek to remedy the channels by which we seek an understanding of things? Later, this: curved, wearied back stretching beneath the darkening porch light, I sit and fight the perpetual battle: should I write in response to a thought or sound or voice with which I travel. How best to suggest similarity: the propinquity of our perpetual disappearance. So this: I recall my wife’s feet scratching against the pavement of an October evening while my son’s air-chasing echo’d words called to us to catch up. I realized that I could never detail how both of those sounds entered my blood and unseated the blindness in which I find myself most of the time: how to give physical body to that which carves us invisibly. Inside the accordion flaps which is my photography, I have tried to capture with the blind basket of my eyes, those things which pass around, through and inside me, corporal or fleeting: bereft breathing. There is no truth in photography but in the sovereignty of the inner landscape of our life’s reckoning selves. We wane. We expand. We seed. We hunger. We are blind. What else can we do? We do not resist.

I

to speak about what my photography means I would have to drape you in my skin. I would tuck you into my bed when i was 9 and began to loose the vision of my right eye and allow you to feel the tension of my frightening and quivering body. I would have to hold your hand as my mother was hospitalized and needed a shoring to understand that I could, for my father and brothers sake, aseed all that would result if my mother did not return to us, which she did not for nearly 2 years. I would have to take you, father back, to when i lived in Taipei and tried to understand why i understood noone around me or why i was taunted as a stranger when I "knew" i was just another asian child, though in truth i was a white boy from America. I would have have to carry you on boards over curling Pacific waves that better skin and open lungs, take you with me over back roads of georgia and south carolina drinking up the scent of honeysuckle and kudzu and mollasses pies. I would have to make you hold my son when he was lost and fearful and afraid he would die.

You see, my photography is something actually quite small and simple. It is part of my breathing, nothing grander or more ambitious.

I have tried to express, rightly or wrong, how i perceive the world through the scribble of the language of light and film, dark etches of time against the beautiful and almost unknowable expression of faces and places. I spend alot of time watching people and listening, sucking up the space around me and telling stories. I tap, at least try to, into place that has carved me, tap into the people with whom i spend time or listen to or love. My photographs are not truthful, for they are simple rhymes, simple moments that moved me, struck inside me, an excavation if you will.

Above all, i feel most often like that, not a poet or artist, but a listener, an archaeologist. This passing life is so wonder-filled, ached-tied and wide, born of the its ephemeral and innumerable fact, its singularity and its reproduction. I know and understand so little and want, hunger, crave to want to know so much more. I want to eat upon stories, to know more people, to understand why things occur, why we love life and others so little, why we banish and vanguish and hurt, carve out life upon the stone of the flesh of others, why it is we harness our lives, mostly, without understanding, with any depth or concern, that it shall vanguish, and in its taking will take us, inelluctibly, with it....

my photographs are witness and testimony. Not to the lives of others but to my own, my own living and its connection to others. I cannot speak for the people i photograph, i have nothing profound to say about the places that I have photograph, only something simple and small:

that I am in wonder of all that passes and that it shall pass and that I can do nothing to stop that, for good and ill, and that my photographs are my small and failing attempt to speak upon things, precisely sometimes and abstractly.

My photographs are a digging, a breathing, an attempt to write a story of my peculiar life and those with whom, sometimes people i know well and sometimes people i know not at all, sometimes places i've sucked upon roots and other places im merely passing through, have carved themselves into me.

I photograph because it excites and enthralls and confuses me. I photograph because i love how photographs look. I love the silence of photography and I love its music. I love the breath and the scent and the odor of photographs. I love that photographs pretend to tell us about the world but often tell us more about ourselves than we imagined. I love photography for the same reason i always loved, as a child, when my father would tell me a story.

Above all, we have only 2 things:

1) each other

and

2) our stories....

that is why i photograph...

bob

[david alan harvey]

DEAR ALL...

i hate to miss out on my own post!! but, now i leave for Oslo in half an hour....chances are i will have very little time during this first full blown Magnum seminar, but i might have a minute here and there...what all of you have to say is more important anyway, but i might put in my "two cents" as soon as i can....

cheers, peace etc etc....david

[Eva]

Some of my "work", if it could be a "living representation of the inner self of the photographed", then I'd call myself happy :)

[Marcin Łuczkowski]

Bob

You hurt me... as always

[Edward van Herk]

Bob;-))
Eva;-))

Answering the question personally is to answer why I photograph. A few years back I lost my first son. During a period of intense grief, I started to see images. Not imaginary images but clear visions of a new reality. It was like driving on a road you have taken many times but you never noticed the tree.....
This made a big impression on me. This new seeing resulted in me feeling close to him. The longing for being close resulted in the longing for seeing. Photography was the logical medium.
It gives me the chance to get close to people, in the middle of life, to give me prove that I am still alive, to get a chance to see what he didn't see, the beauty of life...
So the photographs are the proof....living proof.
Living proof, the best title for an essay David, period.

[emily wolfer]

I'm less interested in documentary or journalistic photography than in the expression of ideas or emotions. But then again, what I'm inspired to make, what I talk about making, and what I make often bear little resemblance to each other. "Suggestive stories"...."abstract fiction"...."non-sequential narrative".... it's all synonymous art speak. It begins based on a story or concept, or an exploration of a psychological state, and almost always ends as a visual metaphor. In journalistic photography, fine art, studio, or whatever, I play a fictional role -- as a character based on literature, a historic figure, someone from mythology. Lately I've been basing my ideas on "Alice in reverse" -- instead of falling into Wonderland, I was born into it and, with adulthood, pulled out of the rabbit hole by the hair. No matter where I am, what I'm shooting, I'm a lost Alice looking for a way back. This project will never end; I will never find it. David knows my background... to others this may not make as much sense... but photo has been the connecting bridge between myself and what I imagine to be the "normal" childhood/social experience; however, this normalcy is in itself fiction. Every member of my audience is looking for something, too, and through this real connections spark.

Edward, your experience makes mine a frivolous one by comparison, yet similarly, "photography was the logical medium."

[Herve]

Bob Black:
I cannot speak for the people i photograph, i have nothing profound to say about the places that I have photograph, only something simple and small:
---------
Obviously, Bob, you don't photograph as you write! :-)))) (very sorry, Bob, but could not help, and could not keep it for me either, and quite laughuing at the minute!)

May I remind our friends you did not ask "why" but "how" and "what".

For me, all of the above (idea, self-portrait, witness, hedonism of performance, etc...), but not really, and eventually only, since I am merely in the hedonistic (the "taking" in taking pictures) part of it all. Saying anything else would be presumptuous, pretentious and self-aggrandizing.

[John R. Fulton Jr.]

I hope that my photographs ask more questions than they answer.

[Lara Wechsler]

My work or rather what has interested me for years and is an on going love relationship which only gets deeper and deeper and I do not see an end to it, since I feel I have not even scratched the surface, is my love for NYC. It is the uniqueness that to me has intrigued me since I took my first greyhound bus into NYC in 1988. The look of the streets and also the people of NYC, whether newly immigrated or people who have lived hear for years from different countries, Polish, Russian, Mexican, Israeli, Dominican, Italian, Puerto Rican, African American, etc there is something that being in NYC does to them to us that makes them so unique, uniquely New Yorkers no matter how short they have been here. Their love for NYC somehow ingrains in them a New York stamp that differentiates them from where ever they came from. And so I love going to different areas and neighborhoods, whether Greenpoint, Park Slope, Jackson Heights, Howard Beach, Rockaway Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Bushwich, etc and even though this or that neighborhood is Polish or Russian or Irish or Columbian, etc there is a common NYC trait in them also that I see which I have an obsession with trying to communicate through my photos. And this trait is in the people as well as the neighborhood look. NYC influences the clothes people wear, the facial expressions people have along with verbal expressions kind of like the way a baby so soon after birth even though they may physically look nothing like their parents take on a certain look and expressions that makes one know their relationship to the parent. NYC is kind of like that to everyone that comes here, whether born here or newly coming here there is a certain traits that NYC as a parent gives to its people.

[Michael Kircher]

I don't see my photographs as anything other than what they are.

[Rafal Pruszynski]

Hi David,

its been a long time.
Its a great question. I couldnt have answered this until recently. Since we met Ive been in a constant search. But recently, in steps, Id say my work has been evolving in a direction of very personal work. Ive been more and more drawn to the diaristic mode of photography trying to show one's family, home, life in an ongoing, evolving project. Not performance, not documentary ... something along the lines of Goldin or Billingham or Strba ...

The thing that bothers me is that the project you gave us fell bang into that time where I was not sure of what to do. Maybe next time.

[mike lillie]

Hhhhmmmm. I never gave it much thought. Now I will be up all night trying to figure out what exactly it is I do. Thanks David-now I have to define myself.

[Bj A. Patino]

"does your work communicate an idea, show what a place or person "looks like" or do you see your photographs as living representations, or even as "objects" in and of themselves.... perhaps even becoming "pure entertainment"?"

i think people like cindy sherman have shown that a photograph could be all of those at the same time or perhaps even more. what is real anyway? john lennon said nothing is but that's beside the point, because a photo is obviously something. but what? something you put in it? something that it gives out? something that others say it is? on my part, i just take pictures and hope others like them, for whatever reason. if they're informed, challenged, bored, or entertained, then so be it. obviously, i'm lacking in self-reflection. i have yet to flesh out my intentions in taking pictures. because to answer your question, david, requires i think a good deal of self-knowledge (as a photographer). meanwhile i just shoot and, like i said, hope that people like what i show them :-)

bj

[Lance Rosenfield]

AGA Happy Birthday! :)

... and what Bob said..

actually, my head hurts too much right now.. this is a pleasure to read and hopefully i'll return with some value soonest..

peace,
lance

[Kelly Lynn James]

If I could write like Bob I might not take pictures. (Bob, when will we meet? When will you be in New York?)

As it is, I believe I'm more like BJ, though with an abundance of self-reflection, but the same conclusion, "i have yet to flesh out my intentions in taking pictures."

But what if I don't want too... what if I'm more of the "my purpose will find me" school. When dealing with a mind that over-analyzes, some of us choose auto-pilot. I like auto-pilot in photography (also called "the zone" and "flow"... if you want to, read Mihály Csíkszentmihályi). Auto-pilot in photography feels right, and synchronous and musical. Auto-pilot in life... well... not good for me. But maybe auto-pilot in photography is a cop-out for not wanting to state a purpose. For not wanting to write the artists statement. Reverse Wonderland... I love that idea.

Bob, I loved what you wrote.

Question: Is everything we photograph for ourselves a self portrait in some way?

[Rafal Pruszynski]

Aga,

I think "importance" is relevant, and I also think anything can be important. if its really important to you as the photographer then it will gain importance through that. I think its all about how you approach your subject, whatever the subject matter.

[Harry]

I try very hard to communicate my love for the natural world with my pictures. I try very hard to take pictures that might persuade people to save a piece of habitat or an animal. I don't take many pictures of terrible things as that only works so much and people become numb to doom and gloom. I also get a big kick when someone buys a picture to hang on their wall but I rather have a doggy picture published in a newspaper with an interesting story than one person looking at one of my best, Unless that person is a multi billionaire who might generate some real change.

[emily wolfer]

Definitely, everything is a self-portrait in a way. And actual self-portraiture is far less self-representational than we assume.

[Panos Skoulidas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32axHJDsX0U

...all that.
panos...
peace.

[marcin luczkowski]

One of my bigest problem is that i idealize everything and everyone (or most).
I started taking pictures because I saw pictures from vietnam war. Catherine Leroy, Tim Page, Eddie Adams, Henri Huet, Al Rockoff, Philip Jones Griffiths... and Larry Burrows!!!
This photos change me, change my mind... I see purpose, destination, pure sense... and then i thought my self if this photography changed me, maybe my photography will change someone else?
But I was young and now I know my photography is piece of crap...
And sense? I'm sorry for this compare, but my photography is like masturbation... I feel plaesure but I should grow up from it long time ago.
No sense no purpose... This is so modern...

[robert wiedenfeld]

non sense; Martin !! Your work in Cuba is really moody and i see a style developing. Also some of your other picks that are dark and foreboding i really enjoy. You just need to keep on keeping on my friend. Sometimes we can get caught up in what others are doing or worry to much about how others might perceive us or our work. The point isn't what others think it's what you think your beliefs-your truths thats all that matters. Worrying about what others think about your work isn't important nor will it help you develop as an artist. Constructive criticism is another story of course. Just keep exposing film....

i personally would like to see you do some pictures in your hometown//like some b/w or color portraits of locals. U should check out the work of Milton Rogovin !! Read the interviews and you will see that this man was and is making HISTORY with his camera. Initially he was educated at Columbia University i think for sure his degree was Optometry. This was the 1960's to 1970's and he started an Optometry business with his wife whom was a teacher in upstate New York; Buffalo. Anyway this man went through so many trials and tribulations. His Optometry practice was run out of business because he was accused of being a Communist. He was fond of and respected the working class people because that was his roots and with whom he identified with. So instead of throwing in the towel at 40 years old Milton started to take pictures within an 8 block radius around his house. For over 20 years he worked in the dark with no support from anyone except his wife whom carried the mortgage on the house and paid the bills. The point is that he believed in the people and the people naturally restored his faith in Humanity !! He saw the Universal struggle and found it beautiful i think you can see this in the pictures. To my understanding it wasn't until Milton was in his 60's age wise that he received any kind of real recognition from the Establishment. The Library of Congress of all institutions decided that what he was doing was relevant and held historical value, so they purchased a couple of fiber based silver gelatin prints for their collection. Many years later when Milton was perhaps 90 the Library of Congress bought his whole collection where the work resides today to my understanding. Anyway the very people that rejected him finally accepted him. No one likes to be an outsider however we can't all be Insiders; right ? The point is that when life gives you lemons then make lemonade.

i also share your frustration in being poor and not receiving fruits from your labor. You reap what you sow doesn't seem to apply to photography. Seems to me that when digital cameras were introduced any average joe was now a so called, " Professional Photographer." Now advertising agencies scour places like Flickr for images because they know it's cheap or free & it passes as good enough. Part of the problem is that we have a public that has no idea how to discern good photography from poor photography. Anyway i suppose thats subjective depending upon who is looking at what.

personally i have no monetary expectations with my own work and any success that comes as a result of the work would be a
Miracle. However working as a waiter for two years day in and day out for minimum wage + meager tips is for the dogs. At times it feels like a prison sentence as my soul feels
stale and i lose sight of what i want. Then hopelessness sets in and it all seems pointless; i concur. For me this is a pattern work to save and buy little bits of FREEDOM here and there. Sure feels good when I'm FRee & Moving !!!!

Much of life is Perception. So Martin is the glass half full or is it half empty ? For me it's always in flux. Poor Vincent Van Gogh !!

[robert wiedenfeld]

martin: www.miltonrogovin.com

[robert wiedenfeld]

"the rich have their own photographers. i photograph the forgotten ones." Milton Rogovin

***** should be noted that Mr.Rogovin recently turned 98 years old and is still sharp as a tack. Their is also a film about he and his beautiful life which u will find on his web-site..

[marcin luczkowski]

Robert

Thanks for your comment.

I always see the glass half full, and I always look at the bright part of life but this is not happy hours blog, and I mostly hate my photography and it is just my feelings experssion.
And i try convince myself to digital photography because I really have no more money for films and developing.
And i don't want complaine for money no more. enought
but it change nothing... my photography is useless
it is sad but it must be
why I hate my photography? because first of all photography it is experiencing of life, and my life is boring... work... eat... sleep.
but it must be like that

[Wendy Marijnissen]

I work more in a documentary journalistic style, but above all I know I work very intuitively.
When I see something that catches my eye, I can loose myself and totally get into the action of it.
Two weeks ago, I was in the french part of my country for an exhibit and walked to the center of town and saw kids dancing.
Like a magnet I was pulled in by their energy, by what I saw, and I could not help myself from photographing.
The only problem is that because I'm so into what I'm seeing and liking it so much, I tend to forget all the technique. And that can sometimes be a problem in seeing the results. It doesn't always reflect what I saw or what I wanted to show.
But above all, I love the feeling so much and I can't imagine my life without photography.
It's the way we look at the world, the way we percieve everything around us, what interests us and catches our eye.
And wether it's artistic, journalistic or anything else, it's beautiful because it tells us something about the way the photographer looks at the world.

[Aga Luczakowska]

Lance, thank you! :-)

Rafał.. yes, i think you and David are right in this case... good to learn something new from you :-)

Marcin.. why you can not travel? Did you get some job in Wroclaw? Are you from Wroclaw, right?

[Eva]

Herve, you write: 'May I remind our friends you did not ask "why" but "how" and "what".'

Isn't the why tied to the how and what with double string, can we really distinguish one from the other? (not talking about work one has to shoot for money, but thinking of personal projects)

[bobblack]

herve:

;))

but the "why" is what i wrote about above...

(as i had written previously, for me (only for me), there is no how and what without the why)...

why, again: nothing grander than this: is one of the ways (of the many) in my life to pass through and along this and these momentsof our lives, unknowably, disappearing....and ilike what photographs, rather making photographs, do...like and dislike...

nothing grand (the stupid grandiosity of words)...simple..

they're my stories, nothing more, why: cause im unable not to...at least for now...but that too, i am sure, shall pass and than i shall no longer make photographs...

marcin: all is...remember that...

b

[Jason Hobbs]

hi david and all,

this is quite a tough question. i think there's a lot of pressure, not in the context of this question though, to define, elaborate etc., etc. i don't like the idea of examining to close, perhaps that may change what i do - i want things to be as instinctive as they can possible be.

i want my work to fit into all of the "areas" mentioned. for me "great" photos, not that mine are, are the ones that don't really fit into a box. they exist in a place/space of their own. i think that that place/space is between the intention of the photographer and the understanding of the viewer. once the picture is out there its at the mercy of each and every view with all their individual notions, biases etc,. i like that this can be chaotic, based on all the infinite variables at play. nothing is static. we photographers have the freedom to do as we wish and the viewer has the freedom to interpret not only the image but the intentions of the photographer as they wish to.

anyway, i'm off for now. david if you see this, i did a workshop with alex majoli, it was a while ago and i doubt he'd remember me, but say hello for me.

take care,

jason

[Lee Guthrie]

Good morning Kelly,

I believe everything we photograph is a self-portrait in some degree. We are drawn to photograph what appeals to us, what catches our interests.

Marcin, I was drawn in by your comments on your life and how you say your cup is half full but your life is boring--eat, sleep, work. Back in July some of us were talking about being bored with where we lived--shooting it that is. There was one in Paris and me in Maui and we were bored with our views!!!

That started me looking at what was "outside my window." I have learned so much about my home and myself in these past 7 months on this project (yes, 7 months of intriguing photos from my deck). At this point I have about 80 photos that blow my mind. The beauty and workings of my immediate area really helped get me through some tough emotional times.

Marcin, I think it would be good for you to begin a photo study of your life and those you meet. See the places you pass every day to work. Look outside yourself in the immediate vicinity and see what a stranger would see.

I say this Marcin because you say you see your glass half-full yet say you are bored with everything and complain about costs, etc.

You are going to be surprised. Don't give up. Search for the tidbits of life that make for a great photo.

I enjoy reading everyone's comments. I have not been active much due to a preoccupation in my life but I have gained some interesting insights from various comments.

Lee Guthrie

[Jonathan Boulet-Groulx]

Bien le bonjour à tous,

First time for me in this great thing called forum of discussion... You all have wonderful things to say. M. Harvey, have a good time in Oslo...

As for my thoughts on "fautografi", I have to admit it is neither the camera, or the photograph that moves me and makes me shoot, project after project. To be honest, I don't believe I am trully in love with photography. But then again, I don't see myself doing anything else. You see, for me, lighting up people's minds, with a subject they too often forget to see, is what make me happy. It is also the reason I have chosen to try and work in positive photography. Peace correspondence, I think, could help change mentalities. It is not that subjects that are hard and difficult like war, poverty, environmental problems and many more, are not important, but I believe there are already many photographers covering these themes. But finding a positive story, or project, in a country stricken by poverty, for example, can also bring people to the idea that everywhere, people can find the courage to survive through atrocities and become agents of change for their own community.
But then again, I am only a very young fautografe, and these are only my thoughts for now...

Actually, I would write longer with examples to try and explain more precisely. But I won't. Have to stop at some point.

I will only add, bravo everyone for participating at such a great idea platform.
Loved the text by Jonathan Castner... Refreshing.

And many happy times for Aga, joyeux anniversaire, happy birthday!

JBG

[Sidney Atkins]

For me, the first part of the question is easy: on balance, I mostly take photographs to 'show what places and people look like'. That's for the actual images. Records of events. Aids to memory. Naturally there's far more to it, I understand pretty much everything everyone else is saying, and resonate with all of it to some extent, but in all honesty it pretty much comes down to: What I see here, in this place, at this moment, in this landscape, this face, in that sky, I want to freeze, hold, and carry with me in some form I can use to remember and possibly share with others. Visual aids for reminiscence and story-telling.
On the other hand, the taking of the pictures, the interaction with the subject, giving prints to people, showing the pictures around, using them in slide shows or multimedia, etc.... that is largely a 'participation mystique' ... Photographing is a way of engaging with the environment, with people. It's a role in a social drama, or a dance if you will, it lets me hang out with interesting or talented people and in situations where I would otherwise not have a 'cover' other than sheer brazen curiosity. And then I can give people photographs that reflect back to them my appreciation of them.
The initial motivation to start taking pictures long ago was never this conscious, of course. I was fascinated as a child by my older brother's darkroom and camera, just playing with that magical process and those neat gadgets and smelly chemicals in the dark was fun, and becoming adept at it was the same kind of satisfaction some people get from developing a good tennis serve or solving crossword puzzles. In terms of visual expression I was much more focused on painting and drawing, even spent a year in art school once, but I was lazy, restless, and impatient, and painting seemed so slow... and like so many of you, I passionately wanted to travel and the camera seemed the perfect companion and tool to take along.
The only real art, or technique, or self expression in photographing for me comes down to this: here's one still image I choose, to try to remember, or represent or symbolize, a fleeting moment. I don't actually think about it much, it's now such an intuitive reaction. I realize photography can be much, much more than this...

[Charles Peterson]

Hi David,

Busy getting married this past weekend, so I haven't been able to keep up answering your questions on the blog. I find them very thought provoking though. Keep it up.

I think of my photographs as: d) all of the above. They generally represent a place, person or thing on the basest level; on the next level they represent a moment and/or an idea. Hopefully they are entertaining in some sense of that word - intriguing, interesting, breathtaking, calming, or just plain fun to look at (and lets face it, even the most disturbing and difficult photos can be vastly "entertaining." )

On the top level I would hope the photos do become an "object." Certainly not all do but the best, to me, take on the status of an icon. I feel very fortunate in that sense, that I have managed to make some images in my lifetime that are iconic and timeless.

This object, or icon as I like to call it, then truly "represents" what it is you set out to represent in the first place without just merely being "representational." ie it shows some aspect of the soul or spirit or character of the person, place, or thing that is not obvious on a purely superficial level without the photographer framing it up and snapping the shutter at just the right moment.

The thing I tell young photographers (and this is often in the context of shooting live bands) is that one must think both fast and slow when photographing. If only thinking fast one can miss subtleties, and not making sublime imagery. If only thinking slow, well moments happen fast, you need to be one with the energy or before you know it your time to photograph is over and you missed everything! (which is why it's also important to be familiar with your gear).

So that is a philosophy I strive for when photographing: fast/slow - sublime/intense. The slow/sublime generally manifests itself in a unique composition (slow down and frame that sucker); the fast/intense in then capturing a moment (quick snap the shutter now!).

That is what is goes through my head when making an image - for others it's probably different I know.

Best,

Charles

[marcin luczkowski]

Lee

I take pictures everyday when I go to work and when I come back, I try to meet people, I try work on some personal projects and some journalistic projects (about transsexual persons) and I see half full glass and I want more... why? because I'm hungry of life! everyday...
and when I was in Paris I was not bored any minute! It was my first time out of my country.
Ok, I see I'm recipience as a person complain always... hmmmm Am I compaining all the time?
I really love life... My life
so... Always Look on the Bright Side of Life...

[marcin]

Congratulations Charles!

[Herve]

EVA:
Isn't the why tied to the how and what
-------

Not denying the why is impportant, as i said before, after all, it says much about us, but Rafal gave a great example of amswering specifically, without getting back to the usual answer to a "why" question: "because I....".

We've been dialoguing on this great blog for many months now, it's nice to think we could get into more specific aspects of what we are doing (or others, if not us) with a camera, the changes that came our way, rather than another glory waxing about "me, photography and life, and blahblah..." .

think of a cake. it's got sugar, eggs and flour. Sure, you can't separate them if you stick to how good the cake is, and its taste is to be celebrated in heavenly length odes. But you still don't know how it's made and why it's different from another's. I think David asked that type of question. Less fundamental "because I" stuff, more about processes, graspings and becomings.

Jonathan, all with you. The world of photo-journalism seems way too competing for somberness, and I am wondering if it has more to do with bad news selling better than good (professional hotography is a produt after all), about the photo-journalists being a flippant group, and about the incredible difficulty of essay-ing the simple joy of being alive, in a way that shows meaningfulness rather than light-headedness, deja-vu or plain cuteness.

[Herve]

Ahahah, Marcin I actually think the world of photography is divided between those who do (or wish to do) personal projects on transexuals and those who don't...:-)

Joking a bit, but not so after all. the difficulty of showing, equating "being" (meaningfulness) contending with surface appearances (recurring drone, if ever there was one, in photography) is at the basis of probably all photography, including vacation ones.

[Herve]

Yes, congrats, Charles. Did you shoot some of it yourself?

A propos Marcin's personal project, and paraphrasing David's curtained imagery:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1036/953397016_d98b2f6778_o.jpg"

[Alex Reshuan]

>THE PURPOSE Rejection indeed.
Nevertheless I am still shooting .What David called "being creative on the road"
I can not stop. I used to do it long before picking up a camera . I will stop the car for a few seconds, watch, smile and drive again.
The purpose of my work .......I guess at the moment it has no purpose. I see it is very difficult to "make it" But I also believe it is the only activity I haven corrupt.
I am not very good communicating with words so I borrow others:
"Through work, man has moved from subject to object; in other words, he has become a deficient animal who has betrayed his origins. Instead of living for himself - not selfishly but growing spiritually - man has become the wretched, impotent slave of external reality."
>HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR WORK<
"I am lured by faraway distances, the immense void I project upon the world. A feeling of emptiness grows in me; it infiltrates my body like a light and impalpable fluid.In its progress, like a dilation into infinity, I perceive the mysterious presence of the most contradictory feelings ever to inhabit a human soul.I am simultaneously happy and unhappy, exalted and depressed, overcome by both pleasure and despair in the most contradictory harmonies. I am so cheerful and yet so sad that my tears reflect at once both heaven and earth."