civilized ku # 781 ~ inexhaustible subject matter / on seeing
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 11:57AM 
Listerine light and screws • click to embiggenPicture-worthy referents are everywhere. If you find yourself in a "creative" slump, picture making wise, IMO you're sleep walking around with two eyes closed. You need to wake up. At least that's how I see it.
Subject matter all around me seemed inexhaustible….Yet what makes these photographs is their objectivity. This objectivity is of the very essence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its limitation. The photographer’s problem is to see clearly the limitations and at the same time the potential qualities of his medium, for it is precisely here that honesty no less than intensity of vision is the pre-requisite of a living expression. The fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods. ~ Paul Strand
Reader Comments (4)
Do YOU actually have anything new to say? do you just quote people who really broke ground?
I like the image. The intense light gives the impression it was able to cut throught the metal rod (which is actually two screws).
You've quoted a few times from Robert Adams which has prompted me to buy his book "Beauty in Photography".
Here's what Adams has to say about composition:
"If the proper goal of art is, as I now believe, Beauty, the beauty that concerns me is that of Form. Beauty is, in my view, a synonym for the coherence and structure underlying life ... how, more specifically, does art reveal beauty or form? Like philosophy it abstracts. Art simplifies. It is never exactly equal to life. In the visual arts, this careful sorting out in favour of order is called composition, and most artists know its primacy."
[He probably says a lot more but I've only read the first two essays.]
You all may find this little video interesting.
Title: Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty
Link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty.html