civilized ku # 2400-01 / diptych # 16 (ku # 1221-22) ~ no apologies necessary

Parsley, garlic, onion & sugar ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenPorch with vine ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenBlue Ridge Falls ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOn more than one occasion, I have taken note of the fact that a number of Landscapist followers, who subscribe to the notion which postulates (in the words of Colin Griffiths) that "too many landscape photographs are of pretty subjects" portrayed "in an over saturated and exaggerated mirror of the truth", have found it necessary to add a disclaimer to their posted pictures which, in a manner of writing, apologize for making and posting a picture which might be judged to be a "pretty picture".

A most recent case in point can be viewed on an entry, River Cononish, Dalrigh, Scotland, on Colin Griffiths' blog, The "Rich Gift of Lins".

Most likely, this apologetic tendency stems from my ongoing crusade, re: freeing oneself (picture making wise) from the constraints of making pictures of (and in the manner of) what one has been told is a good picture. Or, my crusade could also be described as engaging in the activity of trying to win, as John Szarkowski put it, the "contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing"

That written, it was never my intent to instill a sense of picture making guilt in anyone. Rather, my intent has been to instill a sense of confidence in those seeking to find their way out of the pretty picture making morass. To help them understand that it's OK to head down the road not taken by most "serious" amateur picture makers and (once again as Colin wrote) to feel "very strongly that it is important for me to faithfully illustrate my responses to what I witness".

And, I most definitely did not mean or imply that responding to nature's manifestations of beauty were in any way out of bounds for that response. However, I do believe that, in responding to beauty in nature, one do so, as Markus Spring wrote in his response to Colon's disclaimer, in a manner that looks as though "the saturation slider was certainly not at eleven, and it doesn't look like too much HDR makeup or gold-blue polarizer ... When a landscape offers its true beauty like this one, there is no reason in the world to not record it as best as possible in all its facets. For me the problem arises with those consumers, that won't have a look at an image unless it slaps its saturation or exaggerated contrasts in their face".

IMO, as I wrote in a recent entry, the contest between a picture maker and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing can be held anywhere ... be it on kitchen counter, a viney porch screen, or on the edge of a roaring wilderness river. It's all good.

And, BTW, a very nice picture, Colin.

Comments

[Colin Griffiths]

Mark: Thank you for this carefully considered post. It's true, over the last few years your thoughts have continually provoked me to think about my photographic efforts: I am grateful for that. And thank you for your compliment.