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| Endurance |
It fractures my sense of art—if I have such—that monochrome (grayscale or black-and-white) is being tossed aside as a photographic medium. I suppose it is my being so old and so used to having grown up with it and having been trained to use it correctly in my art classes. I looked at today's forty-odd
Level Three contest entries on
Megashot, and only three or four of them were monochrome and only one of those was true black-and-white.
Fortunately the b/w is mine. The last two generations have grown up with color movies and TV programs and most apparently see b/w photography as something archaic. The
photo which leads today's bunch is sort of monochrome and it is a very good work of art; the only real problem I have with it is that this same shot has been done by photographers for ages. The girl or child running and leaping along the beach with a textile item extended above her head has been standard stock photo-fare ever since I can remember; no originality here. Originality. Originality is what separates the men from the boys in journalistic and documentary photography and I think it also holds true with art. The present contest called
Mixed Categories should be a showplace for original concepts or ways of redoing the old ideas to make them look fresh. Fortunately, there are such presented there but the ones people seem to like the most are the ones they are comfortable with and it usually boils down to the same-old same-old colorful presentations. Maggie and Mark have taken the usual suspects and allow us to see them in a bit different way. Maggie's
surf bird is positioned in a manner that does not precisely follow the rules of photography but instead in a way that makes the entire scene more dramatic. Mark chose to present a documentary artwork that tells a sea story and also is different from so many "cruise ships anchored in the bay" (lucky dogs) type photos. His photo of a well-worked
shrimp boat at dock is a jewel in my opinion. Both of these photos have used the time of day to their advantage; Maggie's bird's long shadow paralleling the white surf line and Mark's warm lighting that may be saying the sun is setting on an American way of life. Both photos are composed in such a way that they demand to be looked at closely and I could spend a lot of sentences describing what I like about each one. The main thing they have in common is that both artists waited for the light to be right.
See differently, shoot differently, work differently, and present differently. In my art-challenged eyes and mind, it is the way to become noticed in a world of mundane and spontaneous offerings.
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Have a good worsh day!
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8 comments:
It appears your wrists were working well this morning friend. I wish I had some knack at all w/ photography taking but I am content to be blissfully ignorant and am content to enjoy the work done by my photo-taking friends.
I almost detected a hint of fall in the wind this morning. the light is changing too. happy monday to all.
Thank you for the fine compliments. I like your assessment of the Contests. Yes, the digital world and photo editors have ushered in a whole new era in photography. That Tri-X bicycle photo of yours is incredible. And you got that part about people not looking, right! Everything is done in a flash now. These days a minute is a long time and you should be able to multi-task and do at least 5 things at once. Its exciting, but I think its just too much for me. We have lost too much. But we have gained some good things too. Consider that I can talk to you in this comment box and all that entails. Perhaps a comfortable mix of the good new things with the good old things is something each of us has to find for ourselves. I like what I do and don't need to do the classic girl on the beach shot.
Do you think the slowing down economy might just slow us all down a bit, too?
By the way, I saw Silent Spring on your reading list and have now got a copy of it to read. Al Gore has a 'forward' in it saying how much that book influenced his ideas. Thanks for introducing me to it. I can't believe I was unaware of the book back in the '60's. Rather embarrassing to admit that, as I was into 'organic gardening' from the first days when I had a garden.
Yes, its good to see your wrist working a bit.
Be proud to be a lifelong organic gardner Maggie! My mother was dragging my brothers and I into teeny health food stores loong before we had the Mega-Trendy organic health food stores. Of course a balance between the new & old is a hard line to walk. I still write letters and send care packages via snail mail and it makes me happy. But I love my newfound friends, i.e. here!
I hope w/the slowing economy we focus on reuse & recycle. The land fills are filled up with our tossed away items. I like Maggie's bird photo and mark's photos are a complete reflection of the hippie- rebel-adventurer that he is.
The wrist isn't too bad today, Tammy. There is a bunch of autumn in the air here. A flock of migrating robins stopped by today for a bite of local worms and a sip of stump water. The light is beautiful but a bit depressing.
Thanks, my friend.
Thanks, Maggie.
You are correct and I don't hear the kids complaining about what they see and hear. Maybe b/w has become a quaint anecdote because they haven't tried to see the rainbow colors of grayscale.
I can only hope that we slow down as the economy comes to a halt. If not, we will be like people on a bus when it makes a sudden and unexpected stop.
Silent Spring sure brought me into the world of being very conscious about how we treat the environment. No robins singing on a spring morning is very scary thought for me.
Tammy, you won't believe how much I've learned about life from all my photography friends and that includes you. Thank you.
The people who like b&w the most are film shooters from what I can tell. The contests are an odd thing. The results are to be expected really. I don't mean this to be mean but there is a certain lack of imagination in the viewing audience. The pictures are fine. Some imagination from the viewer would be nice. I also see certain names near the top on a regular basis lately and they don't quite fit the "winning formula".
However I am happy that for the most part the three of us do quite feel with the pictures we post and I'll go for steady praise on a regular basis. Means regular sales in a gallery.
Yep; people become too comfortable with the obvious and fail to see what the photographer is saying. Much like politics, I suppose. If a photographer must furnish a detailed written description of his work so people will get an idea of what his photo means to him, he is not an artist but is some lost soul screaming "Please look at me and understand!". It is one reason I became burned out with Flickr. All the inane "look at me" glittering and fluttering awards became more important than the photos.
You are right about the same names showing up near the top of contests and there can be several reasons for that. One is, those folks may be entering the majority of pics so the odds are that they would have more at any given place. Another is favoritism, and I'm as guilty of that as anyone. I try not to vote my friends photos higher than they deserve, but just voting for them will give them at least five points. As I've said before, the more people who become involved by entering and voting the more level the playing field will become. I would like to see enough players so that the entries allowed from each person would be only one per day.
Sales are always good; just don't give up your rights to use your own work for a pittance.
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