all of us wrestle a bit with experimentation…..when i see a student portfolio with too many different styles of photography in it, i invariably suggest that they stick to one thing…one theme…one style…jumping around from one thing to another too quickly usually connotes no personal development…..and yet, perhaps there does come a time in a photographic life when sticking to "one thing" becomes overly repetitive and it is time to "move on"….
joseph koudelka went from shooting people in "Gypsies" and "Exiles" to shooting landscapes in "Chaos"….was this evolution or a total change in style and interest?? henri cartier-bresson gave up his "street photography" altogether at the end of his career and went back to his original passion for drawing..did he think that photography was just "not enough"?? alex webb’s masterful and complex color compositions have stayed with him for 20+ yrs. from "Hot Light Half Made Worlds" all the way to his current "Istanbul"….should he change, or is this his trademark for life??? will bruce gilden always be on "the attack" with straight hot flash and the surprise element or will he "soften" and do moody warm portraits??? sally mann’s current work looks nothing at all like her early family portraits…are some people nostalgic for her "Immediate Family" or do the galleries push her for something new and different or is sally just letting her mind roll on ???
we can all think of so many examples artists staying the same and artists ever changing….surely, artists must stay "in one place" long enough to have "finished what they started"…..
generally speaking photographers do best when they "specialize"….the best sports photographers only do sports, the best conflict photographers only shoot conflict, the best landscape photographers only do landscape, etc etc etc….but does this "commercial success" inhibit change and growth?? does it reflect more about the "market" than what a photographer may want to do??…
i do not think anyone should change or try to adapt for the "commercial marketplace"…this is an artistic death sentence…
so my question to you is this….. at what point should one change for "growth" and at what point does change mean lack of artistic commitment???
by the way, you will be pleased to know that the photo above represents my first and last attempt at underwater photography….david doubilet, paul nicklin and brian skerry need not fear…..they should just keep on doing what they are doing!!!
Davin,
Do you really think that because someone is with Magnum, works for NG and goes off to Arles and stuff like that, only has it the easy way?
David worked very hard to get where he is now, and if you read earlier posts you can read how he got there in the end.
Even when you have a lot of things going for you, you can still doubt yourself, question your work and reflect on the way you’re going there.
And jetting off from one place to another for assignments, not seeing your family and close friends a lot because of the work, can’t be very easy. Maby it seems glamoureous when you don’t have it, but I think it wears out pretty fast.
Knowing David a bit in person, I know that what you see is what you get. Or over here, what you read is what you get.
He’s an amazing and very honest person and I think by seeing what he writes on this blog, the way he answers posts, thoughts of everyone that is contributing, you would see as well.
He gives you advice and all the help you need, looks at your work when you ask him to, and not because he has to, but because he wants to.
Sorry David for this defense email, I know you don’t really need it, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Wendy
There is an saying from forums…don’t feed the troll.
The best light is very early and very late. The best stories are the hardest to access.
Happiness from hard work?
Back to te style question i was wondenring if it’s possible nowadays to create your own style in a new concept. I mean: Isn’t everything invented??. have we got the chance to do stories in our own way and could it be a new and unseen way??.
Is the influence of other photographes a “cut in your wings” to your personal style??
i don’t know maybe you can help me with this. Sorry for my bad english but it’s too early for me and my brain isn’t wake up yet ;)
Coming out of lurk mode for the first time here:
Let’s give Davin Ellicson the benefit of the doubt and not be so quick to label him. We are all expressing our opinions, and if his is an honest one, it’s as good as any.
Having said that…
Davin, it sounds like you’re under the assumption somehow that all this was simply handed to David. I’m sure David will chime in once he sees this, and what he may have to tell you about the following may surprise you:
a) What happened on his very first assignment at National Geographic, along with the letter he received from the editor.
b) What happened on his first application to Magnum.
I’ll put it this way: Personally I don’t think I have what it takes to get through the hurdles he’s overcome to get to where he is now.
Oh yeah, also sorry for the defense note you don’t even need; and for my bold assumption that you even want to go off-topic on your own blog, or talk about the past, because of one person’s post.
Lurk mode ON…
I see a style as a blend. Your style is your own because no-one is using quite the same blend as you. You respond to your influences, your experiences, your equipment and your subject and somewhere along the line you find yourself happy. I’m hoping thats how I find my style and if I find someone in or close to my parking space then it’d be fun to chat to them and see how they got there.
In any work i’ve ever done, I always start out with the idea to move away from projects in my past…to do something different stylistically (to make a change or correct things i was unhappy with). Inevitably there is always something i am unhappy with, and maybe it’s that i’m seeing part of my style and that i’m SO familiar with it that i shy away from it (like the strangeness of a recording of your own voice?). Do people ever find contentment with the style of their work, or is this the one element that pushes your work forward?
This is something that I think about on an hourly basis.I have beenessentially taking pictures of the same scenarios since I was 18, “Bushies and Blackfellas” was one definition of the work I do when not working for a living.Many things have changed ,Been to many places as a professional press photographer but the things I am drawn to have never changed only my approach has.To be in a place where you know there are pictures to be had ,if only I can get them to reveal themselves is the constant motivation.
Style is something that comes from life ,a result of every person you’ve met,every book you’ve read,every song you love,every woman/man you’ve loved, every failure-real and imagined.
Style is a result of life anything less is contrived and a pale imitation of something someone else has done before.
I just find blogs like this one a bit self indulgent that’s all. Of course I know David Alan Harvey has worked very hard to create such a life for himself and that he is also a human being and has good days and bad days and deals with all that anyone else deals with. I think it’s a funny time right now where people put such information up for all the world to see. This can be good but lead to excessive public musings. Just my opinion.
hi david,
just wanted to say thanks for yesterday, it was a pleasure. i sent my number via private message on lightstalkers; it’d be great to meet again.
cheers
Jason
Jason.
Glenn said, “Style is a result of life anything less is contrived and a pale imitation of something someone else has done before.”
I have this theory–there are ten templates of life. Over the centuries our story falls into one of those templates. Just philosophyzing (sic) here so take it for how it is offered…
Just listened to Dennis Stock’s narrative on Magnum of his interest in and assignment with James Dean. He spoke of style. His statement went sort of like this–
At that time in Hollywood there was a wave of style imminating from the actors’ studio. He used Brando and Newman as examples of the current wave. Then his comment was that [he recognized with James Dean there was a different one coming]. He was introduced to Dean early in Dean’s career.
Interesting how he used the descriptive a wave of style imminating from the actors’ studio. And then a different wave coming up in James Dean’s style. Indicating to me that style is imitated and styles change based upon the initiative of a new style maker.
It is very difficult to have a style that no one else on this planet hasn’t already found. It could be in an obscure village by a child with a disposable camera but I can assure you that any given photographic style is replicated (unknowingly) somewhere by someone.
The two important things about style is that a shooter have it (not necessarily just one) and that it is real for the shooter.
Maybe it is time for a new topic. Couples in photography doesn’t immediately interest me as I am a single shooter but it will be interesting to see what is said on the topic by this blog group.
David, nevermind the intentions for dah’s blog. If just one person can find insight from the words that are posted here, isn’t that worthy? Some of the thoughts and stories shared here by everyone has really helped me understand myself and my photography lately. Try to read with an open mind and you just may discover something special. Happy shooting!
Yes, I was probably writing out of amazement that a photographer of David Alan Harvey’s stature still has such basic, human struggles! Somehow, I thought that if you had book signings and festivals to go to in Europe and major assignments that everything would be A ok pretty much all the time. I do remember David Alan Harvey saying that a reader of this blog might begin to think that his world is a fantasy one with chance meetings with Josef Koudelka on the street and an idyllic life style. . . It would seem that way! His life does seem to be a lot more happening than mine! I wish I had such a life! But I am alone in Romania trying to make my way as a photographer and photograph the last of Europe’s peasantry before the EU ends it all. Maybe I can come in from the cold in a few years with a book printed and an exhibition and a few drinks among the New York art crowd. . .
Oh Davin, I’ve seen your Romanian photos in, was it Diplo? They’re lovely! (I just went and had another look in Blueeyes too, I knew I remembered your name).
I think the books and exhibitions and the magnum membership and the odd beer with Koudelka compensate, some of the the time, but they don’t cure jetlag and long distance relationships or being garotted by muggers who steal your only camera and leave you for dead in the street and etc(if David and Davin can complain about the trials of being a photographer then I’m bloody well going to start too.)
What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know if we ever get to come in from the cold, not really, and the good bit is the bit you’re doing at the moment. The other thing is a bit of an empty bubble – see Bill Jay on How to to be famous sort Of. Or dont: it’s funny but sour. Better read Why People Photograph instead.
If you think photographers have it bad, try talking to some ballet dancers. I sat down to a lunch with a bunch of dancers, the one to my left fixes me with her praying mantis eyes and gives me as her icebreaker: “you know, I’m in CONSTANT PAIN…”
so umm, what we were talking about? Change? I’ve heard it’s as good as a rest, maybe we all need to try it.
Davin: my LS friend, you sound wearied….and, though none of us can profess to understand the motivations or syncs or pulpy beat-heart-skips that guide what another writes or speaks, it seems that you’ve overlooked a fundamental human (yup, that’s for all of us, including those of us who were well known or unknown before the web begin to bridge and gum our bodies and thoughts together virtually): we need, in whatever manner that may be, to connect: to insite connection or rebel from it. I, usually, too find the blogosphere generally boring, just as a find most of what I write (or make for that matter), generally boring. However, it is undeniable that the world, the bridge of cabled-speed as threaded for each of us to see a fundamental truth: we all wish to speak out and connect, we all wish to self-aggrandize and to share, to honor and call out, to bewitch and be bewitched: in a world: voice inside and upon each other….
i too find myself spending much too much time leaving comments (here and at LS) much (for now) to the time away from darkroom or, more in truth sleeping. but, i also recognize, it is a fundamental connective thread: the world Davin is spun together in ways (forgive me, maybe you’re still too young) that are extraordinarily sleek and miraculous. For example: you would not, most likely, have met your idol, Mr. K, without your own connection to the blogs/on line communities: LS. We all grope for meaning and connection and David’s resources (his life his energy his time his character his compassion his humour, yea his concern too for himself (we all have this)) are splayed across the map of the world: his blog is NO different than the rest of the vehicles of his life, before the web and will be long after……
we are all infinitely small and yet, oddly, beautifully, often painfully, we’re spread wide and thin through disappearance….
that david has chosen to “speak” in this form is no different than the way you have chosen to document or speak with the Eastern European peasants you are trying to write upon. Like Berger (read pig earth, once in europa and flags and lilac), you are too telling an essential and important story and so too David here:
in truth, he’s rhyming my friend: his blog is setting a lick upon which the others merely follow and strum upon: the oldest story in the world: telling tales over beats: that’s all he is doing and people are connected and connecting…real or virtual, that’s for them to decide, but the truth is simpler Davin…much more fundamental….
I dont come here ’cause I need a Magnum photographer to tell me anything, nor do I come here to squat with a celebrity, I come here (now and again), ’cause I dig David’s heart and I love his honesty, his candor and, yes, often his insight and wisdom. Though Im not always in agreement, but I cherish about David’s blog is that is is fist-motherfucking-fist wide in size and beautiful: He’s allowing people to sing, including you Davin, including you, for had he not, you wouldnt also have had the chance to chime in your own melody here….
that’s the key my friend, the riff….
I did David cause his photography is not separated from the thumping beat of his big-hearted body….
an man, as a 40 year old photographer and writer and father and husband who also tries to constantly give back in a world that mostly gives a rat’s ass about others, that’s a cat, David Alan Harvey, that I’ll join along in song any night of the week…..
listen to stories Davin…that’s really what’s going down here……
all the best
bob
p.s. O typo alert, typo-alert:
I did mean to write “i did David cause…”….(god almighty!!!) ;)))))
that should be: “I DIG DAVID CAUSE…”…
christ, my wife and his girlfriend are really gonna get pissed ;))))))
cheers,
bob
i like to go to workshops–not only to learn but to laugh. This blog is great–it’s beautiful and sweet and funny. And I do appreciate the good advice. It’s a lot like a workshop.
On style–I read a little story in an inspirational magazine a few years ago. I wish I could remember the photographer’s name the story was about. After the death of his daughter, he completely changed his direction. He went from color stock photography to fine art black and white photography of the Everglades. It was gorgeous–using his pain to create beauty. Rosemary
davin…
no self indulgence intended….if i were self indulgent, believe me , i would not teach or try to help emerging photographers think about the world they are about to enter….
i would just be self indulgent!!! and enjoy my life all by myself!!
i try to write stories that are mostly about other people..i am fortunate to know some of the people you may be interested in knowing a little more about….that is also why i publish my students work….if i do publish my own work it is with the intention of being helpful..showing a thought process and mistakes and misgivings…and if i write about myself it is only a starting point and i try to spin the story in your direction..
after all i am supposed to be a communicator….isn’t this a wonderful new way???
my mother was a teacher….she taught me that no matter how far i went, that i should always extend a helping hand to others who might be less fortunate or just needed a little nudge…
that is also why i am setting up a non-profit fund to help emerging photographers perhaps do some independent work….i might fail at doing this…i could just spend more time doing my own work…but wouldn’t THAT be a little self indulgent??
it is quite simple…the net has given us a new medium….it seems that we should use it…as far as i can see, the most interesting thing about this forum, is all the writing that all of you do….it is your writing that is important…not mine..
there are many great photographers, like koudelka, who would definitely not do a blog…he also would not look at your portfolio or teach a class or maybe even give you the time of day unless you were in his “league”…not that he should…he and others owe the world nothing but their work…it would be a whole lot easier for me to have that same attitude….
once, when i first was nominated into magnum i was re-buffed by one of the world’s greats….this photographer shall go un-named because this photographer is still a “hero” of mine and a great influence….
but, at that moment, i swore to myself that i would never be like that….i did not see that arrogance or his “self indulgence” was beneficial to him as a human being…and i believe we are human beings first and photographers second..
and, in that light, even when i am shooting and doing “my own thing”, i treat my subjects exactly the same way i try to treat the readers of this forum…it is my nature….
i hope it shows up in my photographs of others and i hope it shows up in the work i do here…
In your Work in Progress strand you promised to talk about “intensity” for projects.
I am only 19-years-old and have a hundred-thousand subjects I would like to explore. I find something new to shoot everyday and a new way to shoot it. Being that I am so young, I feel like my life-experience is changing more drastically, day-to-day and that causes me to be ever examining a style with which to shoot, or at least one to try and begin to develop. It seems like at this point in my life, intensity means an awful lot, and I would really appreciate your elaboration on the subject. -Rush Jagoe
.
Sorry about the blank post. Not quite sure how that happened. -Rush
Setting up a non-profit…you will need lots of patience. I just today got clearance on one that I have been working on for two years and spent thousands of dollars in legal fees. Need any advise just ask.
David,
You sound really genuine and I have to say that my possibly lame musings on your blog followed by peoples’ replies and now yours, have helped me through a rough few days. Apologies for taking away from the strength of this on-line community.
Sincerely,
Davin Ellicson
David….
the “traveling camera” concept was done…Today I just discovered this..take a look….sorry
Carlos Rubin
http://www.toycamera.com/travelcam.cfm
Hi, David,
Before taking up the camera, I used to make comic book art, and before that I used to paint in watercolor. When people ask me why I went from painting to photography, I always tell them I didn’t like waiting for the ink to dry. Seriously though, I think my artist-self was just looking for the right tool to focus and express its Vision. True enough, when I got into photography, it felt like a large window opened up in me and a dim part of myself was suddenly brought to light. In just a short time, I was making photographs my paintings would not be able to hold a candle to.
But despite finding this “match” with photography, I’m sure I will still keep trying my hand at other forms of creative expression. Communication is a lifelong process after all, and looking for the most effective means of putting across what we have to say at the time we need to say it is simply part of the game. Maybe that’s why HCB “gave up” photography for drawing or why Gordon Parks decided to go into filmmaking and learned to play the piano later in his life. It’s all about fulfilling our purpose the best we can.
My two cents.
Jeryc
You know, it’s almost always a mistake for me to go back and read comments like the one I posted here. I invariably sound like a bilious schmuck.
I think one should always tinker, explore, be open for change, discovery and growth. It comes to us as much as we go to it. This is often best done personally and at times in private. And then one must have the discipline and the rigor to take those discoveries and constellate them into a cohesive vision as best one can.
It is all process. At least the creative part is. The business part is another matter entirely.
I hear you about the self indulgence and arrogance. Why be like that? Though I dont think people do it on purpose and maybe they dont really know the effects…or remember how it felt when they were rejected earpier..although many probably were prodogies from the start so they just never got to feel the ejection. I really value your openness. I mean you are a magnum photographer, national geographer..all the stuff dreams are made of yet you are open to those of us who have no stature in this business. Some of us maybe will, many of us will not. Yet you go out of your way to communicate us on a daily basis….schedule permitting LOL.
And in the end, isnt it just much more fun to be open and friendly? I think greatness isnt only measured in your own work but how you influence, mentor and bring along the next generation to follow in your footsteps.
You are right about Koudelka owing us nothing. Nobody owes anyone anything..we owe things to our family, we owe things professionally to our employers, but thats really where it ends. Thats why this place is so cool. You do this out of your own free will.
Some people have the need to be negative. Thats just how they are. I dont think Davin was trolling, I just think he is one of those people who are negative about things. Thats fine, thats who he is. Im just glad you arent like him.
Anyway, just finishing up shooting and printing the portfolio for your eyes David. I guess I wont be visiting Mr. Koudelka with it;) But im glad Ill be showing it to you.
Rafal! I already apologized! C’mon! I was questioning the idea of blogs and the sharing of the minutiae of one’s life. . . I was thinking out loud when I should not have been. I quickly saw from David’s post that he is the OPPOSITE OF SELF INDULGENT as he said–he’s willingly sharing so much and the focus is not necessarily on him. But hey! It’s his blog afterall and the focus has every right to be on him! I rest my case and will say no more. Salut.
I wasnt really criticizing you. But, ok, sorry:)
How’s Romania? What was your reason for going there? Sounds like an interesting project. Good luck with it.
Its interesting what David says about getting shut down by a famous photog the first time he applied. How did that make you feel and did it spur you on to do something different? What was the reason for that rejection? I think HCB was againt martin Parr entering Magnum, thats what I read somewhere. Do you know anything about that?
There’s a post on Alec Soth’s blog which mentions Philip Jones Griffith’s opposition to Martin Parr’s membership:
http://alecsoth.com/blog/2007/07/01/badgering-parr/
Jones-Griffith wrote a letter to all members urging them to reject Parr – here’s a quote:
“He is an unusual photographer in the sense that he has always shunned the values that Magnum was built on. Not for him any of our concerned ‘finger on the pulse of society’ humanistic photography. He preached against us and was bold enough to deride us in print while his career as an ‘art’ photographer mushroomed”
Despite Jones-Griffith’s opposition, Parr made it in by one vote.
NB. The commentary by Gerry Badger quoted by Soth further down the post is not serious – it’s satirical.
hello all…
this has been a most interesting post…certainly the one with the most comments from you ever on this forum….
i have had problems with the net here in arles, so i just have not been able to get on and respond the way i would have liked…i think i have solved the problem now, so i will try to do a bit of “reporting” for you…and i will also go back and respond to as many of you as possible…
davin…
i was not offended by your comments..i can tell from all of your comments collected, you are a fine young man…i only felt they required response…it is fair enough that any of us at any time can be questioned about our “motives”…and this forum is intended for discussion and that is what we are having…
if anyone goes “public” with his or her photographic work or writings, then that person is subject to whatever critique comes…that is part of the deal for me here and for all of you who publish authored work of any kind…
please do post us a link to your work if possible….i do try my best to look at as many links as possible…part of my “reward” for even doing something like this is to see work i might not otherwise see…
i promise to take a careful look….i generally respond by private email to those whose work i have seen…
in our complex world today, it is too too easy to “mistrust”…and all of us have some pretty good reasons to be skeptical in general…
a rule that i have for myself is this…unless i personally have been “betrayed” by someone or an institution, i try to give them the “benefit of the doubt”…
it is so easy for all of us to slide into cynicism….cynicism is our enemy..because cynicism will eat you alive faster than a blood seeking shark….
I think HCB asked something like “why does he have to make such ugly pictures?” I think it was Peter Marlow was trying to pursuade him in the pro Parr group…I think! Anyway it’s easy to feel uncomfortable looking at Martin Parrs’ work as i think we all relate to it in some way. I think people mistake him for ‘taking the piss out of the working class’ or as Philip Jones Griffiths says “kicking the victims of Tory violence” his latest work is portraying wealth in the same distasteful way. I think Martin Parr said somehing about portraying the absurdity of the world.
Hi David
A while back you said you would email me a quick critique on my work, I never got it I not sure why, maybe you forgot , maybe the email simply never reached me, maybe my work is so bad it wasn’t worth your time! I don’t wish to push you on it, don’t worry if you’re too busy. Some other time maybe.
Cheers
Paul
paul…
i am so sorry…i must have just forgotten…i just took a quick look at your site and i am sure i have never seen it before…and now i am rushing out the door…
i have left a note for myself to do this in the morning…stay on my case..i will get it done!!!
Hey no problem David! absolutely when you have time, there’s no rush.
Have a good night.
Many thanks
Paul
David, In your blog you mention Alex Webb’s consistency of style over a 20 year period. I am a great admirer of Webb’s photography, and always think of him as having a sort of “third-eye”. I loved “Hot Light/ Half Made Worlds,”Sunshine State” and the Haiti book,(Although I was more moved by Maggie Steber’s “Dancing on Fire”,done at the same time). While Webb’s latest work, “Istanbul”, contains some wonderful photographs, it is generally disappointing. I found the book repetitious and perhaps a tighter edit would have made it more compelling? On the whole it was a tiring read, and while I frequently re-visit his other books, I am much less inclined to do so with “Istanbul”. Webb has unique vision and a distinctive style which differentiates him from equally accomplished photographers. But perhaps it’s time for a shift in perspective? I would love to see the results of even the slightest move away from the rigorously formal and abstract. Maybe something less cerebral?
rush..
yes, i will do this….you are at exactly the age, when things should move forward in a significant way…..you are at a time of experimentation which is just the way it should be and yet you must also make key decisions for yourself…actually, this process is never over in a creative life, but you do want do set down a solid “base for your pyramid” soonest…
can you send me a link to your work??? that would be the best way to start a discussion… for me to give you the best advice i would need to know a bit about you and your background and motives etc etc…
you will pick up a few pieces if you go back into some of the previously published stories
here, particularly under “workshops”, “family” and “work in progress”…
in any case, i look forward to seeing your work…
From the wikipedia:
“In the Mahayana tradition, Bodhisattvas take vows to work for the complete enlightenment of all sentient beings. A Bodhisattva strives to become fully enlightened as a Buddha so as to have the best abilities to help other beings, and takes the vow to not enter into (passive) Nirvana before all other sentient beings have achieved complete Buddhahood.”
Just substitute “David Alan Harvey” for “Bodhisattva” and “emerging photographers” for “sentient beings” and you’ll get the idea.
Also, from the discussion way up, Koudelka would be the Buddha reaching Nirvana, having released all his attachments and no longer concerned with emerging photographers.
Hola David..como estás?
If you have a chance, can I have some feedbak about my work?…I’ll really apreciate that….I’m really don’t know which way to go right now…please remember I’m only an “amateur:” but I really want some advice…I want to take some workshop next year in the right direction…
http://www.carlosrubin.com/photos/Documentary/
saludos..and please…keep doing what you do in this blog…is very very important for us to have this forum.
Carlos
carlos….
i just spent about half an hour with your work…overall you have some very nice photographs….in your documentary section , i would edit those down about half…..your very strong ones get brought down a bit by some weak ones…i could “fix” this section in about 5 minutes….your polaroids and holgas look particularly good, but again a quick edit would make these look even stronger….your paintings are amazing…
there are many ways you could go now …but i think the best thing for you is to keep up the strong single imagery you have going in puerto rico….a book which combined your painting and photography and your writing would seem to be a natural…done properly, it would show you as a natural contemporary biographer for your country….
i need to sit down with you somewhere…either puerto rico or new york….i need to be able to move things around…pace the floor….think early, think late….
if i do a book making workshop , you should try to make it…i have done book workshops before and they are absolutely the most constructive….i do not have one planned right this minute, but pls. stay in touch….
saludos, david
David,
you can’t imagine the value of this feedback for me…thank you so much for your time….I’ll follow your advice…I feel exactly the same way but I don’t know where to start…sometimes part of my editing work responds to the way my friends are reacting to my images and I guess that a bad technique…
If you do a “book making workshop” in New York or any other place, please let me know… if someday you have a couple of hours in NY, I’ll take a plane to see you.
In the mean time, have a great vacations with your family and thanks again for you feedback and this vauable forum you have created for all of us.
un abrazo.
Carlos
Carlos:
To borrow from Preston’s post, you have just been led to enlightenment by a Bodhisattva.
David:
If you have the time, I’d like to know what you think about my photographs as well, especially my Batanes and Banahaw images.
Peace,
Jeryc
jeryc….
i will happily take a look at your work…but not right this minute…i just got in from london and am too exhausted to make a good critique for you….i will try tomorrow…
Hi !
I had no Internet access last week so I’ve just read all the comments and it’s good to see that an interesting blog turns into an interesting forum…
Now, the question I would like to ask is :
Is it valuable to theorize about style ?
Reading some comments, I would say it is.
But is it valuable to theorize about your OWN style ?
And, more than that, can’t it be dangerous ?
This is something I’ve been wondering about for some time and talked about it with friends.
Now I try and explain what I mean and where this comes from.
I’ve seen the work of so many photographers and artists in general who can’t reinvent themselves and stop being creative after 10 or 20 years of work.
Does it come from fame (cf previous post) ?
Or is it that the photographer has understood what his style is and therefore can’t create something new ?
Let’s take an example : HCB, in 1952, was asked, by Tériade I think, to write an introduction for his book “Images à la sauvette”. In this well-known text, he brilliantly conceptualizes his work.
Now, for me, HCB’s interesting, creative and free work was created before 1952, in the 1920′s, 30′s….
After that, though some pictures are really great, I think that, form a stylistic point, he kept repeating himself, just like so many photographers did.
Maybe that’s because he knew so well what he began to do intuitively in the 1920′s that he couldn’t do anything else. Especially when he became well known for that (here again, cf. “fame”, everything is connected).
Now David, enjoy your hollydays… well deserved !
Pierre-Yves
For me, you shouldn’t analyse why you are taking the pictures you are taking.
You take the photos that you need to take. Let others categorise them into a style.
And let others determine whether or not you style has changed over time. Just take the pictures.