there is now outside my window a morning fog so thick i cannot see the river…monochromatic…soft, mysterious….it hides the fact that i am where i am….it has taken the "place" out of what is normally an obvious skyline….new york is temporarily "gone"……
i often contemplate "place"….both where i live and where i do my photographs….certain environments seem to be catalysts for good work done and others not…..i tend to feel more comfortable in southern climes…new york is way way too far north for me…only because it is new york can i deal with the biting cold wind of winter….cold is not so inspirational for me….a warm tropical dawn with fishermen readying their small boats for the sea moves me more than whale hunters preparing their dog sleds for a journey over the ice….
most photographers i know prefer certain "places" as well as certain types of stories….do you envision any time soon a story about Alaska from Alex Webb or James Nachtwey’s vision of Iowa or Maya Goded in China or Bruce Davidson in Japan or Mary Ellen Mark in New Zealand or Joseph Koudelka in Tahiti or Gregory Crewdson doing a tableau in Russia or Nan Goldin in Scotland ??? i cannot imagine Ansel Adams having set up his 8×10 in Indiana nor Henri Cartier-Bresson doing street photography in Hollywood…
how important do you think it is for a photographer to be in the right geographical environment to do their best work??
the fog lifts now slowly…..now i know where i am……
by inspirating i mean inspired…
damn tower of babel¡¡¡¡
I think it’s hard to take pictures when you’re very familiar with a place. I’m not exactly sure how the brain sees but I think it makes up a lot of what you see, focusing on what’s important, so you can drive to work for 100 days and only notice the new stuff or as often happens to me end up at work and wonder how that happened. Perhaps when you live somewhere the brain doesn’t fire off enough to get your artistic juices flowing. I’m sure everyone has had a moment in an accident where every thing slows down lets you make those vital decisions that save your live. Travelling is like that for me I notice every thing, see everything.
David I’m guessing you do lots of good work in New York why do you think that’s different from Washington.
Harry
Hellooo
I wrote you again,
but it seems my mail didn’t reach you this time either.
did it?
I don’t know why it’s difficult for some to shoot at home but I agree with previous posts that there should be a place somewhere to rest the eyes and put the camera away, where you don’t have to be “on.” This doesn’t have to happen where you live but it’s probably easier to take a break at home vs when “away” since most of us are more excited about shooting while “away.”
SIDNEY, HARRY….
i always thought i did not photograph much in washington because i was traveling all over the world working very hard and when i came back “home” to washington, i just needed to decompress…so, i was happy living in washington, enjoyed the environment, but did not feel compelled to photograph…
however, now i still travel all over the world , yet when i come back to new york i DO feel like making photographs…and, perhaps oddly, literally at home in my funky bohemian building which seems so so unique….
all of my early essays were very near home…i never had travel as any kind of prerequisite for making photographs…that just “happened”…however, once i did start moving to various parts of the world, i found more stimulated by some cultures more than others…all were interesting in their own way, but some had me wanting to return and others i felt i had “done it”….
for example, i have done two major long term essays in vietnam and loved every moment, but do not feel compelled to go there tomorrow…whereas i have done many essays in central and south america and just cannot get enough…and i go happily to brazil on sunday!!!!
cheers, david
CRISTINA….
i am not sure where you are sending e-mail to me….please try: davidalanharvey@aol.com ….i have had several people telling me that their emails do not go through or get bounced back….but, try this e-mail account and see what happens…
i do have some pictures to send you, so i hope i receive your e-address soonest…..
cheers, david
David,
As Sidney also suggested, I think being able to photograph at “home” or not is a very complicated topic.
I think there are as many examples of photographers being able to photograph at home as not: Gilden’s NY work, Larry Towell’s work on his farm, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s work are prime examples which spring to mind of photographers who are able to work at home. Towell’s and Meatyard’s work is of their families. You can’t really get much more close to home as that. I guess Nan Goldin’s work of her close circle of friends is similar.
My own experience was this. I grew up in the rural county of Norfolk, UK. After a few years living away and eventually going to graduate school in Newfoundland, I got this urge to photograph the region I grew up in. I think it had become to familiar to me and I took it all for granted, and when I left I couldn’t wait to leave and thought I would never return. But photography brought me back and I realised that I really didn’t know the region at all, even after all those years. But the camera gave me a reason to discover the place and come to really know it intimately.
If you want to work close to home I think the key, to use the old anthropology cliche, is to “make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.”
I personally think it is harder to work at home though. When you are away to work, you are there to work and work only (usually.) You can get into the groove, the zone, and stay there more easily because there is nothing to distract you. For that time, you live, to quote Sam Abell, “the photographic life.” Of course you can live that life at home too, but it is harder, and the more complicated your life is, family etc., the harder it becomes to live that life when at home.
But I have come to realise now, after working seven years in my “home” region that once my project is finished, and a book is published (hopefully!) it wil be harder for me to stay here and call it home.
I know Alex Webb has said that there is always so many things which also need to be done when you are at home that it is hard to switch off and just photograph. And I know what he means. I don’t carry a camera every day. I have to get into work mode and go out specifically to photograph to really produce good pictures. Of course there have been exceptions, but not often.
David, I wonder, could you actually go and live in Brazil for a year or two and keep that visual fascination up and continue to photograph there almost everyday? I think it would probably be harder for you to work there then.
I think this just comes back to the fact that there are certain places or cultures which stimulate certain photographers more then others. I guess it is just the nature of the craft.
Cheers,
Justin
david:
vietnam essay?…anywhere i can see the pics?
hugs
b
i do not think that the geographical environment should be decisive in a photographer’s work. to an extent, it will affect the photographer, it happens to be a human, but i fell that the photographer should be sensitive enough to understand the change and be able to produce the encharged work.
why do you think some photographers thrive photographing where they have chosen to live and others cannot?
This is kind of like the philosophy question, “why,” to which the answers are, “because,” and , “why not.”
The answer also relates to those artist statements we all love to write where we tell why we photograph and what we think about when photographing. If, in that statement, the photographer writes something about the fun of discovery, that could be a clue to the answer to the question David posed.
Some photographers love to absorb new experiences through their camera lens/viewfinder. I’m probably one of these photographers. Then, however, there are photographers who are happy to shoot details of whatever surrounds them, things like texture and shape. They can shoot without getting out of bed.
Another matter might be the relationship factor. Do you want to be a fly on the wall? If so, you keep yourself a bit on the outside of what is happening. Do you want to be on the outside where you live?
I think that there are so many factors, relationship and discovery being two, that it might be more reasonable to answer, “because.”
Good morning all,
Michael
Maybe this question can be related to “Style”?
What makes up the personal “Style” of a given Photographer contains similar answers to the question David posted:
["why do you think some photographers thrive photographing where they have chosen to live and others cannot?"]
-sfjason
Jason, I think you’re onto something. But I would say further that it is personality. And not just the personality of the photographer…but also the “personality” of the hometown. When the two blend well photography happens. Or maybe I should say “inspiration” happens.
Hi, Michael (I hope your mail box can receive my friday pix now!),
I would say the personality of the photographer, yes, but that which relates to his photography. It seems that Alex W, James N, David, others of course, would not live anywhere but in New York, but are not super keen on exploiting the photographic wealth that city has provided for decades to some of their colleagues.
BTW, a question to the cognoscenti: who would be some of the most marking photographer(s) whose artistic output has solely relied on one very specific space, that which where they lived? Not their best work, their only work. Brassai? doisneau? and…
Herve,
To provide a name to your question: P.H. Emerson. He moved to rural Suffolk in the 1880s. Took up photography. Photographed the rural life and landscape of Norfolk and Suffolk for about ten years and didn’t produce another photograph after that.
I’m sure there are other examples.
Cheers,
Justin
David…
One question… we talking about “how important is for a photographer to be in the right geographical environment to do their best work??”, but what you think about “the right geographical environment to do their best developing (self-evolution)”, I mean city, school and teachers, colleagues photographers, photo gallerys, etc.
Young photographer from New York have much more “the right” geographical environment than young boy in small village somewhere in china. Even if both are the same talented.
So, if young photographer from new York will visiting some extraordinary place on earth (with this light and this mood!) he will be much more prepared to do his best work, than this poor boy from little village.
And even if this poor boy from Chinese village will somehow do better pictures than this new York’s young photographer after greatest art school, he can show this great pictures his poor family only, or maybe will publish in small Chinese newspaper, but not in NG and he will not working for “the new york times”, and will not have exhibition in biggest art museum, but only in small hall in some small cultural institute in his small village, and he will died without big album about himself. Like about Newton for example…
I have not idea that my words have any sense for you…
You knew many photographers around the world, so you will know better than me… exist “the right” or “not right” place to do “best work”???
This poor boy from little village have any chance to do better works than his similar very talented friend from new york, let say Sebastiao Salgado’s nephew? Ha, ha, ha
Do you think we are determinate? In philosophical sense.
I’m asking about beginning this search “the right geographical environment to do best work”. What creating photographers…
Martin
BOB…
vietnam essays in NG …both in late eighties and late nineties….i will see if i can find exact dates..some pics should be in Magnum archives for you to see…
MARTIN….
well, i think you are absolutely right and i have thought about it a lot….BUT , i am the kid from the small village with no museum, no library and no nothing of any kind to do with photography…still, there i was working away in my darkroom….i did not make it to new york until three years ago…
cheers, david
HELLO ALL…
well, all of this discussion is pretty interesting…and good points all around…
for the first 15 yrs. of my photographic life, i only photographed my immediate surroundings…then NG happened, and i went around the block a few times…i have always done a combo of shooting my surroundings and other cultures….
but, travel was never what i was looking for when i decided photography would be my life…even now that i travel all over the world, it is the story that interests me…not the travel to an exotic place…
an “exotic place” is only someone else’s back yard…
i cannot tell you how many times i have been asked when on some blue lagoon in Indonesia…”hey man , you are with NG, what are you doing here?? you are supposed to be in some exotic place aren’t you?”
cheers, david
Bob Black and Whoever…
Big three-article spread on Vietnam with photos by DAH in National Geographic November 1989. Spread on Hanoi in May 2004 issue.
Sidney
ha, ha, ha
“i cannot tell you how many times i have been asked when on some blue lagoon in Indonesia…”hey man , you are with NG, what are you doing here?? you are supposed to be in some exotic place aren’t you?”
this is good!!! I think about it many times and this is truth!!
remeber! the earth is a ball, and on ball every point looks identically, so like i say; wherever we go we are in home anyway…
Martin
ps. sorry for english in last post.
David how could you find these questions?? Why I don’t take pictures in my parent’s house of my own family? it is a big question for me. so many of subject I like and take pictures from give their roots from my life in Their home, in last 10 years I’ve spent just about 2 week a year in my parent’s but no pictures! I take pix from my sisters or brother but when we are traveling together or they are in my place. I like relation between people and their pet that I am sure it comes from my parent and their pets (so many pets), I was taken pictures of a friend and his parrot and all the day and the day after I was thinking about my father talking wit his parrot. I miss them every year but their home is a place I couldn’t take picture of
David/Sidney :))
thanks, found the ’89 story in Magnum archives this morning……jesus….i just realized that some of those images (skinned dog, old woman praying) are seared in my memory from the magazine,long ago….this addling world….so incredibly beautiful david alan harvey…..
words later….
b
david:
now looking…why havent u thought of turning these pics into a book?…
i’ve looked at the ’89 and ’04 images at magnum….interesting juxtapostion between those 15 years :)))))
b
What if you photographed your immediate surrounding enough? There is a limited number of ways to skin the cat and then it’s time to turn somewhere else.
rene:
each place is infinite in her stories and understanding…it his we who are limited in how we see or feel toward place…it’s more about ourselves, our tedium, our inimicable thirst for reinvention, even though it sits right in front of our eyes…
i think, if i am honest, every photograph that i have made is essentially the same one, and that is both frustrating and settling, just as every word carved is the same, every line of prose or every rhyme of poem…
why is it that we need to travel to find we’re still remaining? ;)…
there’s a great Brazilian quote from the Brazilian masterpiece novel “Devil to Pay in the Backland”: the truth of things comes not at the beginning or ending of a journey but in the middle…..
i will never be able to photograph well or deep or wide enough my wife and son and friends, so too the places i live…if it were not for my human boredom with place (the hunger to move, to see anew, to carve), i’d photograph one place forever…for me, my instinct to “discover” a new place, to visit, is really about trying to re-see the same thing: the thinks and places and, above all, people, around me….
the frustration and the struggle…
bob
david: quick follow up: why none of the Vietnam pics on your Magnum Profile Portfolio page: some extraordinary images in those 2 essays….
running
bob
Bob, in essence I agree with you but not practically. Sure, Josef Sudek (my favorite photographer) photographed out of his studio for over 10 years and I understand that he has produced outstanding work. But Josef Sudek was missing an arm and in the years of his studio work he was pretty much limited in his mobility.
I believe that had he been a healthy mobili person he would have ventured out into the country to photograph like he did in his work at Hukvaldy, or Most where he produced terrific work published in ‘Sad Landscape’.
For I believe it is about variety, a fresh approach to subject, expanding of horizons in what you can see and photograph.
addendum… and it is first and foremost about content. How you capture the content might have to do with your personality. Some people are travellers at heart while some love to stay in their surroundings.
It is about the personality of the photographer.
Some might travel to Shangri-La but will never produce a decent body of work while others who have the ability to capture content will excell.
Some might stay in their surroundings but will never produce a decent body of work while others who have the ability to capture content will excell.
The key indicators in solving the puzzle are:
1. Ability to photograph
2. Personality (Traveler or homebody)
Combination of these two will produce an answer that is correct yet not black/white.
Rene :))
have you read Bruce Chatwin’s SONGLINES? :))…we are, at heart, a nomadic species, wanderers, singers of place, carvers of stones along the horizon, a unsettled creature, but this wilding is born of a specific meaning: we continually search for meaning, for understanding, for reconciliation…
all place, in essence, are the same. It is our delusion otherwise. However, it is the shifting landscapes and temperatescapes and place and time that undo and renew us. in this, i would say is the compulsion for movement.
certainly, in essence, we are all nomadic, it just manifests itself in different ways: some surf the world of their imaginations, some actively travel, some travel from channel to channel to channel, some from lover to lover, some from moment to moment…
Sudek’s photography is still an exploration, a refining and changing and sifting, continually. Yes, i agree that each photographer’s work and movement suits their personality. I am a wander, by nature and by birth (my parents fault), but i also recognize that the wandering, the traveling, the excavation is still the same: looking and examining and imagining that which probably will forever elude me: roots. I have found roots in the soil of my wife and son, and still the 3 of us scatter, continually, ourselves around the world: n. america, europe, asia, etc…it’s in all 3 of us…
for some, yes, a “change” can renew the eye, renew the process: this change may come from a change (as jimmy buffet reminds) in latitudes, but this change may arise from something more prosaic: a new film, a new friend, a new book, a new moment: failure….
travel can renew and it can also accomplish nothing: for if a photographer, just as a writer or musician or banker, doesn’t have some “ethic” some sense of what makes or defines or moves their lives (the mechanics of breathing), or to use David’s word “authorship” then nothing remains…
i spent 1 hour this morning looking at David and John vink’s pictures of Vietnam…and thought to myself: yes, both those sets of pictures are absolutely Harvey and vink in their own inimicable way ;))))…
that’s what i mean…
but i get you too :))
the “ability to photograph” for me isnt a solution in the equation ;))), but something else: the relationship the photographer has to photography….
when my son was very young he couldnt or didnt know how cameras worked and yet his pictures of Toronto, NY and Moscow all looked the same: magnificently and magically fucked up and lots of weird close ups :))))…
running,
cheers,
bob
Good stuff Bob. Let’s look at one of your last paragraphs: the “ability to photograph” for me isnt a solution in the equation ;))),
Correct. I wasn’t looking for a solution. Solutions are best for math problems. ;-)
Somehow I just knew you had Songlines on your bookshelf Bob.
“I know this may sound far fetched, but if I were asked ‘what is the big brain for?’ I would be tempted to say ‘for singing our way through the wilderness.”
~Dylan
Frustration is no indication that we are in the right place or not.
I think we are a bit, on this topic, going too much into introducing the notion of positives and negatives, determining our choices.
I think ultimately and at the onset, we should see going to Bangkok from San Francisco, for ex., the same way we go from our kitchen to the living room. All the rest, exotism, at-homism (!), these are just details, just like having a blue or black jeans in our luggage will not affect the quality of the experience travelling.
In some ways, to be verbose a bit, someone like Nachtwey has always been shooting in his home, and doing still-lives, if not macros, of the human psyche at and thru war.
If what we are shooting, which is outside of us, responds to the very core of who we are, then what do miles/Kms, have to do with it?
Dylan :)))))…that’s it brother, that’s it :)))))
herve: :))))…in the country of the country of the heart ;)))
cheers,
running
bob
All is one Herve. All is one.
You are absolutely correct…Wherever you go there you are.
So why then am I not outside right now shooting like crazy?
I don’t know…maybe different external situations express more clearly who we are (internally) than others?
I could take it up a notch and say where does “internal” end and “external” begin? Many say there is no beginning or end…But that might be better suited for a philosphy blog.
Taking pictures is only one part of photography. Davids’ blog tells us that, just to take an example close to us right now.
What makes him whole as a photographer (a man too, I suspect) is not just exhibiting and publishing his work, but how he gives of himself to others, no camera in hand. Just to name one thing. Yet, he is a photographer.
So for us too, without denying that a lot of neurosis come into not doing what we should be doing.
Yes, I think that the greatness of photography is at the apex where the outer and inner worlds meet.
It can be said of many things/arts, of course, but the obect/material we treat in P. is irremediably independant from us, and that’s where the unquenchable fascination, and epiphany too, of this craft comes in. To “own” what will never belong to you, ie. time and space (already pretty illusory). It does happen a little bit every time we click, but for the epiphany, er…. Yes, we should be out practicing, Cathy….;-)
PS: What happened to your friday pix, BTW, I saw your name in the list?
Cathy,
It’s all molecules. Just a big ol’ massive continuum.
David, did you ever shoot next to a bunch of other photogs being herded around by secret service agents?
I just did it. It’s not for me; I was never so happy to come home to the middle of nowhere and feel the dense rainy air wrap around me. And, I did it on spec for sipa. So how does this relate?
Environment, not necessarily place…
Whew,
Michael
RENE…
you have it right…
BOB…
yes, good point..i should do something with the Vietnam work…i do have an upcoming book which might have a good space for this…
i do have a whole whole lot of work which needs to be filed, organized and archived….i could stop working now and do nothing but that and it would be a lifetime of work….there are many stories i have done which you may not be aware of and are not even in the Magnum archive, much less on my profile…
i need to rent a warehouse and three assistants to get all of this done….and i am not the only one way way behind in this regard….anyway working on it…slowly slowly!!!
MICHAEL…
i have had the “herded around” experience…just enough to know it is not for me..totally the wrong “environment” even though perhaps in a perfectly fine “place”…
SHERMAN….
it would really be interesting to see what you would do with photographs if you went “back home”….you might want to try to figure out a way to do something “at home”…i have a feeling you would catch on fire!!!
cheers, david
Yes Michael, particle physics…not that I’ve studied it…but I read the Cliff Notes :)
Herve, sorry about the Friday confusion. I had emailed David to get the specifics and realized that I’d already missed one week, was traveling last week and now will have limited internet for the next couple of weeks so it wasn’t the right time to join in. In the meantime he added my name to the list. Enjoyed your image though!
I do have new images on the link for my name here…changed my link as promised…check out the slideshow lower right.
Thanks, Cathy, beautiful, vibrant work, There are some outstanding, inspiring collection of shots under the signed names here.
DAVID:
Chris A now has for you to deliver some Late Autumn Harvest something and a small Ice something gift for U…we drank together last night together….you shall receive and hear about it “SOONEST” ;))))….
hugs
bob
ps. YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING WITH THE VIETNAM WORK: IT’S MAGNIFICENT!…..
B
David,
do you have any problem with issue a book? you are famous photographer… maybe you should publish many books now… after so many years of work… maybe some more personal. i’m sure you have thousands amaizing photos witch was not publish before… not only about vietnam… but maybe you are not interesting in that?
vietnam essay is also one of my favorite, but i see only from NG 89, and some single.
Martin
ps. when i’m thinking about your vietnam photos i miss for old photography. now digital journalism looks Otherwise. earlier photojurnalism had more soul, especialy from 60′ 70′. but of course it is only my opinion
All FYI
Check out this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/
Michael S.
Thanks for passing along. That’s a cool series. Wish I could get BBC, but no satellite here. Hopefully PBS will pick it up, or maybe BBC will release a DVD series at some point. The site is cool anyway, though.
Speaking of shooting in our own home town, I was wondering how many of us actually shoot in their own home… Is your private space off limits, or do you keep a photo journal (a-la Abell and other photographers), or you even just keep your photo eye in shape on your private subjects?
I, as a compulsive photographer, shoot anywhere, family/friends/my dog/my cats/backyard, even if many of those photos will remain in my CD/HD archives (to my family’s relief!) And if you do, do you have a different style and approach or you treat your intimate subjects as you would any other type?
Cheers,
Giancarlo
PS: David, ever got a couple of emails from me?
Hi Giancarlo…I am also a compulsive shooter around my house but it varies over time: i can put aside my camera for two months and suddenly I use it 6 hours a days for the next 2 months…I have ever been what you can call consistent shooter…
Ask my dog how he feels about this. Luckily he loves being photographed (especially if you give him a little treat!)…
I tried to develop a photo journal but I have an issue with this concept: it almost as the photographer has to create the action in order to photograph/maintain the journal. It is like playing your own role in your book…does the fact that you know that you are maintaining a photo journal encourages you to do more?? (not sure if I am clear enough)
arie
by the way I received two weeks ago the book: “Sam Abell – the Photographic Life”…I loved this book.
arie
Out of circumstance, I mostly shoot around the house for the last 25 months.
I started working from home since my daughter and son were born (13 mos apart).
So my photographic work is mostly of them now and I post pics online for family & friends. (this takes creativity in order for me and others to keep an interest in my photos & a challenge that is rewarding.)
Outside of the house, my style does not change regardless of location.
speaking of places….
I do business with hoteliers from all over the world yet I am happy staying close to home and passing up some biz trips. It doesn’t matter where I photograph, I find the same challenges are always in front of my face.. right where I stand.
Now you know. :-0
- Arie,
I agree on your feelings about photo journals — as I do about journals in general. I would personally feel self-indulgent and perhaps a bit narcissistic about keeping one. But that’s just my personal bias. I’m glad someone does not feel the same way, otherwise we would never get the journal part of “The Photographic Life”, which is huge, so intimate and tender as it is. When I travel it’s different, as it is less about me and more about “place”…
As for shooting at home, I am somewhat inconsistent too, but my rhythm tends to be tighter… days, not weeks. And I do shoot my dog too… and my cats… and my wife and daughter… friends… even tiles! if the light is right. It makes for some funny situations, I’ll tell you. :)
(Yeah “The Photographic Life” is a really great book.)
- Jason,
My approach is the same as yours. The happy-go-lucky / spur-of-the-moment snap is just a tad more “relaxed” than the more formal work. For me a photo is a photo, regardless of occasion and subject. My wife says I’m just a bore, and perhaps she’s right!
I like your thought about the same challenges right in front of your face. Feel exactly the same.
Giancarlo
david and all….there is a quote in the book: an artist life: I think that the artist as teacher pours so much of his thinking and so much of his energy into other people that he saps his own creative springs at the source”…
Obviously you do not agree with the quote above….or we would not be having this conversation….could you tell me if at nay moment in your life you agreed with that quote (for any reason)…youmay say that teaching has stimulated yoru photography: if yes, how? And lastly how do you see your next 20 years as a photographer: what are you looking to accomplish that you have not done already, is it possible that say in 5 years, you say “that’s enough, photography has given me all it could”….
arie
Thanks Herve. I also enjoy looking at all of the work of my fellow posters. It’s going to be great seeing the work that has been submitted once it’s published here.
And speaking of which…
DAVID what is your time frame for comments on the early (original)submissions?