civilized ku # 522-23 ~ the only important evaluations ...

Rainy overcast afternoon ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenConcerning the notion found in civilized ku # 519 regarding "finding a great deal more in them (pictures) than the artist intended", Sven W asked:

For Mark's image, I can only see it's literal interpretation i.e the restaurant deck ... Mark, I'd be interested to hear what "else" is in your photo?

To a great extent, the question was answered by Jimmi Nuffin:

I think that Mark can only tell you what it is. Only "YOU" can decide what else it is.

However, Sven W believes that If there is a non-literal interpretation to an image (the "else") then I would expect the photographer would have it in mind. IMO, that ain't necessarily so.

Consider Henry Wessel's opinion regarding picture making MOs:

Part of it has to do with the discipline of being actively receptive. At the core of this receptivity is a process that might be called soft eyes. It is a physical sensation. You are not looking for something. You are open, receptive. At some point you are in front of something that you cannot ignore.

I know that, for my picture making, "something that you cannot ignore" plays a very significant role in getting me to raise the camera to my eye. And, I can state without reservation that, at the moment in time of making a picture, I don't always understand exactly - beyond visual appearances (which also plays a very significant role in getting me to raise the camera to my eye) - why something is something that I can't ignore.

Other than the fact that I am, first and foremost, interested in making pictures of the so-called mundane minutia of everyday life - IMO, life is primarily, but not exclusively, made up of small moments and small details, it usually takes me some time spent viewing one of my pictures to start to come grips with the specifics of a given slice of life that caused me to react to it (to make a picture) as something that I cannot ignore.

Of course, as Nathaniel Hawthorn opines, I start to come to grips with the what else-ness of a given slice of pictured life because of a picture's suggestiveness, which interestingly and ironically enough derives from a picture's specificity as a cohort of the real/actual.

Relative to Sven W's question about civilized ku # 519 (restaurant deck), some of the preliminary conclusions I have come to regarding its specific "what else-ness" involve notions of the feelings associated with lazy hazy days of Summer - pleasant days spent just hanging out and enjoying good food, libations, and companionship (or, at times, companionship-wise, lack thereof). And that the pleasure derived from such experiences need not depend upon grand and glorious locales - little pockets of respite, wherever they might be found, will suffice quite nicely, thank you very much.

I also believe that there is much "what else" to found in this restaurant deck picture (and most of my pictures) that connects with Robert Adams' idea of Form, beauty, intuition, and hope. To understand those notions and how they might apply to my pictures, read Robert Adams' Why People Photograph, and, most specifically, Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values.

All of that said, I have already said way too much - my "what else" should not be nearly as important to anyone out there as it is to me. Jimmi Nuffin was right and Robert Adams agrees ...

Silence is, after all, the context for the deepest appreciation of art: the only important evaluations are finally, personal, interior ones.

Comments

[the wife]

Gravitas has a rich inner life. When he snapped those photos, i thought he was just killing time while i waited for the pharmacist to dole out my prozac and flonase (they improve our lives so i am not grumpy or sneezy)

[Sven W]

OK, so now I know what Mark's pictures look like when he's killing time ;-).

After reading your detailed response, I think we are pretty much on the same "page". I also take pictures of the smaller moments in Life; the reason might be visual, to capture a moment in time, or an idea triggered / enscapulated by the scene before me.

Occasionally I get a nice surprise and there's more in the picture than I originally intended. It seems you might get these surprises more than I do ... I'd expect this as you are a more intuitive / artistic photographer than me.