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Author Topic: looking, seeing, reacting, showing  (Read 5173 times)

jdemott

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« on: July 11, 2003, 04:40:25 pm »

Thank you for a thoughtful, and thought provoking, article.  I always enjoy discussions about photography and photographs more than those about photographic equipment.

Your observations about impressionism/expressionism suggest some interesting avenues of thought--ones that I will enjoy exploring mentally in the coming days.

I was interested in your comment about the differing mindsets for color versus black and white photography.  It has been some years since I have shot much black and white.  However, the lessons of black and white are always in my mind when shooting color.  Unless color is the obviously dominant subject of a photograph, I think I look first at values and light before I think much about color.

I hope you will continue to add essays to your website and post here when you do so.

John
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John DeMott

Wim van Velzen

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2003, 05:07:54 pm »

Thank you both for your kind words!

Showing my work is indeed getting more important to me. Photography is about communication after all.

My website helps enormously to get in touch with people who like to see the kind of photography I do - very rewording.

I hope to find some time to dig deeper in the sites of the people here!

Wim
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dfourer

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2003, 09:20:40 pm »

Read your article.  It says something about a Bronica 6x6, and even though I only see the computer screen, I imagine very fine prints.  I enjoyed the photos very much.  At the end you wrote about showing slides and web publishing.  Do you show large prints also?  

I found a good source of color prints here in the USA.  It is still expensive and also tests my photography skills.  I can get 10 out of 10 look good as snapshots.  2 out of 10 will look good as 8x10-inch (20cm x 25cm) prints.  in the beginning, zero out of 10 look good as really large prints.  I started training my eye and perfecting my craft to get good large prints.  I like the challenge and look forward to showing them.
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Wim van Velzen

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2003, 02:02:02 pm »

Hi all,

I wrote an article about the photographic circle of life: looking, seeing, reacting, showing.

Personal thoughts about my own work as a (landscape) photographer - may be food for thought for yourself.

As always: comments are welcome!

Wim
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pedz

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2003, 02:24:24 pm »

It is really valuable to me that you put showing as part of your cycle.  I find it very validating.

I did not have a way to show my photography.  I would print out a limited number of pictures and show them to a few friends.  But I was imcomplete and I did not really perceive the imcompleteness.

A friend suggested I try to get a booth in the local art festival.  That process suddenly completed the cycle, exposed the incompleteness I had had, and was just incredibly uplifting and satisfying.

I did not sell much but I still really enjoyed the process and the reason is because it completed the cycle.

Your article is the first that I've seen that echoes my experience that showing is part of the process.

Thank you for your article.
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dnone

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looking, seeing, reacting, showing
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2003, 05:54:41 pm »

Wim,

enjoyed reading your article rationalizing some of the urges one has in taking a picture and about the "cycle of photography".
and I also agree that spontaneous shots are rarely fulfilling the personal expectations, but maybe this is merely a personal requirement which wouldn't encounter the same criticism from a third person...

and yes: I also think that one is able to learn to 'see' things, to 'see' a landscape and that this impression is not only different if one knows the history of the places but it will also show differently in the pictue itself. on the other hand 'seeing' itself is affected by the experience and line of work one is doing. myself for example do most of my profession - which is not photography - under a microscope, so I really end up perceiving first the details, really minute mostly and it requires a consciouss effort, a stepback to be able to see the whole..

thank you for your thoughts.
dn
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