A landscape containing many man-made
objects, including the lake
I posted this little ditty in '07 and '08 so I will make it my Christmas season tradition; something like store-bought eggnog.
The true meaning of Christmas in America
We treat it (Christmas) like having one-night-stand sex; slam, bam, thanky' ma'm and it's over 'til next year. Flirting begins in September, then by Halloween we're booking a cheap motel room, and at Thanksgiving we are naked and in bed. Now comes the good part; a whole month of foreplay, followed by twenty-four hours of unbelievable intercourse, climaxing in an orgasm of give and take; grunts, groans, and screams of delight ... and it is over. But wait; O' my God! The sleazy encounter has resulted in us having caught a transmittable disease; in-debt-up-to-our-ass-itis! We didn't practice safe holiday. We reached into our pants and whipped out our well endowed credit card and stuck it in every slot available, even allowing strangers to handle it. For the next nine months we curse, threaten, promise, and pull our hair and swear "Never again"! September rolls around once more, and though we haven't paid our full price for the previous year's dalliance and indulgence, we begin anew.
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Maggie—a friend and my photographic mentor—posted a comment on one of my pics concerning man-made objects in landscape photos. It is a good point because from a purist viewpoint, landscapes should show nature and nothing else. In Europe where landscape photography began in the 1800's, it was difficult to capture a natural area of any large breadth because the countryside was dotted with houses, barns, fences, and many other man made objects. Europe has been settled for nearly 2,000 years or longer, so the handiwork of man is about everywhere. Paint artists could opt to ignore such things and just leave them out of their scenes, but the film camera recorded all that it saw. The first known photograph was made by a Frenchman in 1826 and was a mix of buildings and countryside. In America and it's westward movement of the mid-1800's, it was a different story; there was mostly nothing but unspoiled vistas for the first photographers. Even then, they sometimes had survey crews or their tents in the photographs, if for nothing else they used them to compare the size and grandeur of the land to mere humans and known objects. Where I live, it is difficult to find a place of any large area where made things aren't present somewhere in the distance; I would have to go deep into the mountain hollows to find such places, even if they still exist there. Like anything else, I suppose it has come to be a matter of taste; at times I see photos with something man-made in them and I wish it wasn't there to detract from nature, and other times I see photos where I wish there was something man-made depicted just for size comparison so I may better realize a sense of what I am viewing. Man-made or natural, the best thing to do is enjoy the scenery.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug shots of the Week!
objects, including the lake
I posted this little ditty in '07 and '08 so I will make it my Christmas season tradition; something like store-bought eggnog.
The true meaning of Christmas in America
We treat it (Christmas) like having one-night-stand sex; slam, bam, thanky' ma'm and it's over 'til next year. Flirting begins in September, then by Halloween we're booking a cheap motel room, and at Thanksgiving we are naked and in bed. Now comes the good part; a whole month of foreplay, followed by twenty-four hours of unbelievable intercourse, climaxing in an orgasm of give and take; grunts, groans, and screams of delight ... and it is over. But wait; O' my God! The sleazy encounter has resulted in us having caught a transmittable disease; in-debt-up-to-our-ass-itis! We didn't practice safe holiday. We reached into our pants and whipped out our well endowed credit card and stuck it in every slot available, even allowing strangers to handle it. For the next nine months we curse, threaten, promise, and pull our hair and swear "Never again"! September rolls around once more, and though we haven't paid our full price for the previous year's dalliance and indulgence, we begin anew.
----
Maggie—a friend and my photographic mentor—posted a comment on one of my pics concerning man-made objects in landscape photos. It is a good point because from a purist viewpoint, landscapes should show nature and nothing else. In Europe where landscape photography began in the 1800's, it was difficult to capture a natural area of any large breadth because the countryside was dotted with houses, barns, fences, and many other man made objects. Europe has been settled for nearly 2,000 years or longer, so the handiwork of man is about everywhere. Paint artists could opt to ignore such things and just leave them out of their scenes, but the film camera recorded all that it saw. The first known photograph was made by a Frenchman in 1826 and was a mix of buildings and countryside. In America and it's westward movement of the mid-1800's, it was a different story; there was mostly nothing but unspoiled vistas for the first photographers. Even then, they sometimes had survey crews or their tents in the photographs, if for nothing else they used them to compare the size and grandeur of the land to mere humans and known objects. Where I live, it is difficult to find a place of any large area where made things aren't present somewhere in the distance; I would have to go deep into the mountain hollows to find such places, even if they still exist there. Like anything else, I suppose it has come to be a matter of taste; at times I see photos with something man-made in them and I wish it wasn't there to detract from nature, and other times I see photos where I wish there was something man-made depicted just for size comparison so I may better realize a sense of what I am viewing. Man-made or natural, the best thing to do is enjoy the scenery.
----
The Smoking Gun's Mug shots of the Week!
6 comments:
I think that it is your 4th lesson in photography, Ken. I like it. As a person who had to survive communism in my youth I do not like the dogmas in any field of our life; of photography, too.
Yep! The best thing to do is enjoy the scenery.:-)
Hi Jola.
I still like the wide-open vistas where the hand of man hasn't spoiled the view in any way. Difficult to find such places because we have managed to pollute the air and change the weather. Pollution may not be an object, but it may be our greatest legacy. :-(
Enjoy the scenery while it is still there. :-)
Although I do not like seeing man made things in scenery shots I can usually look past them for the real beauty. However air pollution really screws things up. You notice it so much in many places in the mountains. That is a bummer.
A lot of the pollution from coal power plants south and west of us gets hung up against the mountains, making the Smokies turn into the Smogies.
As far as landscapes having or not having man made things, I too like to see nature, but the photos I make will have to be labeled by the viewer, and I ain't too big on classifying borderline photos. They are what they are.
There are two kinds of photos: mine and all those billions of others that I wish were mine. I am an addict.
Thanks, Mark.
The Smogies, lol, all too true I'm afraid.
I agree about letting the viewer label the shot themselves. However when I take shots they are ultimately for me first. Both of us have many shots we love and know that others do not like at all. Oh the life of an artist.
I wonder if it is art if no one else likes it? That's why I prefer to call myself a snap-shooter.
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