Topic: Will the Real Landscape Photography Please Stand Up ? (Read 113177 times)

Stefan.Steib · « **on:** January 31, 2015, 04:45:29 pm »

Ladies and Gentlemen

I would kindly ask you to read that article and then post your thoughts. I think there is a really interesting approach here.
I have my own ideas about this , but I will wait a bit before I will post them here in the thread.

http://petapixel.com/2015/01/31/will-real-landscape-photography-please-stand/#more-157150

I am really curious, after all this is a place for many landscape photographers.
Be honest - please !

Greetings from Germany
Stefan

amolitor · « **Reply #1 on:** January 31, 2015, 04:58:11 pm »

Ugo is not the only person who feels this way.

The vast majority of Serious photographers, people who have bought a bunch of gear, learned a bunch of technique, and style themselves Serious Photographers, are content to copy photographs they've seen.

The fact that this gets them up votes, likes, +1s, and so on creates a feedback loop which virtually compels them to start grinding out populist kitsch in bulk.

Social media is deadly to artistic vision. Frankly, a desire to be commercially successful can be as well.

None of which is bad per se. If making saturated landscapes with blurred surf makes you happy, great. I wish I was happy with my pictures.

luxborealis · « **Reply #2 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:06:31 pm »

What an interesting article with a point of view not unlike that which is expressed here from time to time. The author, Ugo Cei, does start out by stating he's being curmudgeonly, and that he is. But it's a good summary of the popular landscape photography we see.

At the same time, if you are a commercial photographer, you must shoot what sells. It doesn't mean you can't also pursue others types of photography, but ultimately, the market decides.

As Cei says: "Maybe I should go looking for great landscape photography somewhere else". Yes he should, he must! We all must! The landscape photography on LensWork is often atypical of what you see on 500px. Maybe he should star there. Also, look at the work Burtynski is doing. Definitely not typical. It sounds like Cei needs to "get out" more often beyond the popular.

Hans Kruse · « **Reply #3 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:07:59 pm »

Well, if he had come up with some other approaches himself I would be interested, but looking at his pictures, I just see someone who is envious of those who can make great pictures.

Certainly there can be a fatigue of seeing the same locations over and over, but there are so many other places to shoot and so many different ways to do it, so just go out and do it. I see a lot of pictures on the top landscape page on 500px that are really good and not just copies of others.

amolitor · « **Reply #4 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:20:54 pm »

My perception of 500px is quite different. I see the vast majority of landscapes as basically copies of the same dozen pictures. Sure it's a different waterfall, a different spit of land with a different lighthouse, a different verdant valley, but if you saw the two pictures 24 hours apart you'd be hard pressed to tell one from the other. The same basic subject matter is always treated the same way. Albeit often with great skill.

Give me a PH Emerson any day. They might be soft but he's trying to show you something, not merely dazzle with a sort of xeroxed sense of the sublime.

Stefan.Steib · « **Reply #5 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:36:50 pm »

My answer number one - also according to your replies:

Yes of course a commercial photographer needs to make a living.
The recipients are consuming what they are used to see. There is a kind of contemporary "Taste" that demands certain approaches.
Is our own reception as photographers really dependent on this mainstream - or - wouldn´t it be part of the process to drift into the direction of interest and experiment ?
Isn´t the way more important than the result and as I see it: doesn´t our society totally neglect this nowadays ?

Of course there are NEW Ways new sights and people willing to try out their emotions and ideas.

But doesn´t this mean real landscape Photographers today are amateurs, who are not bound to make a living out of it ?

Greetings from Germany
Stefan

Hans Kruse · « **Reply #6 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:47:12 pm »

Quote from: Stefan.Steib on January 31, 2015, 05:36:50 pm

Of course there are NEW Ways new sights and people willing to try out their emotions and ideas.

So, in your opinion, what are these new ways?

pcgpcg · « **Reply #7 on:** January 31, 2015, 05:58:27 pm »

The author makes a good point and so does everyone who posted a comment. I can’t ever be sure of someone else’s motive, but I do understand why people do things different from me. We’re all individuals on different paths, with different psyches, presented with different life challenges, and in different environments. Most of us struggle with the artist's dilemma, how to fulfill something inside us and what to compromise so that we can accommodate our living situation in a world that puts a relatively low value on art. Some of us (speaking for myself) occasionally feel a pang of jealousy or resentment or perhaps a surge of self-righteousness or [insert insecure emotion here] when we see someone else do or experience something different from us. Getting into a discussion about what is art and how we should behave pursuing it is sometimes interesting, usually frustrating, and never conclusive. One thing I'm sure of is that I’m grateful every day that I and others in the free world have the luxury and freedom to create art without fear for our well-being. My best to everyone who is struggling to pursue their vision of art and viva la difference between us all.

amolitor · « **Reply #8 on:** January 31, 2015, 06:00:38 pm »

Stefan no doubt has his own answer but I will give mine as well.

My answer is an old one. I react to the landscape, I feel something. This reaction, this feeling, I take and try to turn in to a photograph.

Hans Kruse · « **Reply #9 on:** January 31, 2015, 06:05:08 pm »

Quote from: amolitor on January 31, 2015, 06:00:38 pm

Stefan no doubt has his own answer but I will give mine as well.

My answer is an old one. I react to the landscape, I feel something. This reaction, this feeling, I take and try to turn in to a photograph.

Sounds good to me. Can you show some examples as there are no galleries linked from your signature?

amolitor · « **Reply #10 on:** January 31, 2015, 06:11:11 pm »

I don't shoot landscapes, alas. Mainly because it's hard. I also don't share much online.

Finally, and maddeningly, I can't paste links here using my phone, either. I'll share a couple little portfolios later today, perhaps tomorrow, though, because we're among friends!

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #11 on:** January 31, 2015, 06:16:13 pm »

As someone who shoots and sells landscape and cityscape photography, I am indeed interested in what sells. But not what others sell, so that I can replicate it, but what sells of MY photography. I shoot what I like, process the way I like, and only then I pay attention to what sells of THOSE. If something doesn't go, I'll keep shooting it for my own pleasure, or find a venue where it might go. There is a difference what people might want to put on their wall, what an ad agency might consider suitable, or what magazine editor might like. So, yes, I alter my sets of images based on target audiences, but that does not mean I need to alter my photography. I still raise my camera only if something speaks to me.

Stefan.Steib · « **Reply #12 on:** January 31, 2015, 06:55:21 pm »

As we are visual people I want to let images speak.

Here is one of my favourite Photographers I found on Flickr, as I think a very big talent. scroll down through his stuff,
he changed his style several times radically but you can directly see his very special handwriting.

And dont let yourself be "fooled" by his newer experimental stuff, he is a master of conventional photography as well a sample below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfriel/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfriel/3120497057/

Here I see a fight for the images and a search and man, this guy shoots PLENTY......

I have some more samples, but this is my favourite still photographer (maybe some who know me may suspect what comes next...:-) !

Greetings from Germany

Stefan

amolitor · « **Reply #13 on:** January 31, 2015, 07:39:14 pm »

Here are some things you can look at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amolitor/sets/72157634495379240/

and this one is a temporary guest pass. These photos are in a private album, a virtual "studio wall" so I can look at them. They will be coming down in a bit, so please don't copy this link if you quote me, so avoid dead links (I will edit this post when I zap the guest pass):

{ photos and guest pass have been pulled down now, sorry }

Do these have a distinctive voice, or do they simply look like copies of someone else? (that is a rhetorical question) I don't know. Perhaps in the sheer multitude of voices, mine is indistinguishable from many others. Perhaps each photographer on 500px is indeed speaking in an individual voice, but I cannot distinguish it as distinct. The facts remain: these things ARE shot in my voice, and I CANNOT distinguish distinct voices on 500px very often.

Of course you're welcome to discuss, but I'm not looking for critique.

Hans Kruse · « **Reply #14 on:** February 01, 2015, 04:16:30 am »

Quote from: amolitor on January 31, 2015, 07:39:14 pm

Do these have a distinctive voice, or do they simply look like copies of someone else? (that is a rhetorical question) I don't know. Perhaps in the sheer multitude of voices, mine is indistinguishable from many others. Perhaps each photographer on 500px is indeed speaking in an individual voice, but I cannot distinguish it as distinct. The facts remain: these things ARE shot in my voice, and I CANNOT distinguish distinct voices on 500px very often.

Of course you're welcome to discuss, but I'm not looking for critique.

Thanks very much for posting. These photos are clearly very different from landscapes, but I don't see any reason why you could not apply a similar view on landscapes, if that would speak to you. I have seen "similar" photos but yours are not copies and just because somebody else has made photos in a similar style I don't consider them copies.

I shoot landscapes and I shoot what I like. I have seen other photos from the same locations but I never saw one that looked like mine. You can see my 500px pictures from the link in my signature.

stamper · « **Reply #15 on:** February 01, 2015, 07:37:19 am »

Not real.

AreBee · « **Reply #16 on:** February 01, 2015, 08:03:42 am »

Stamper,

Quote

Not real.

No. Real, just not landscape...according to what most would qualify as landscape.

Keith,

Ship's hull?

amolitor · « **Reply #17 on:** February 01, 2015, 10:06:40 am »

I've never sold a photo in my life and don't intend to ever try.

That said, I do pay attention.

Some people sell pictures. A lot of commercial photography is selling pictures. Pictures of the client, pictures of the client's products, pictures of the Grand Canyon, pictures of the wedding.

At the other end of the spectrum you're selling yourself, and a vision. Ansel Adams wasn't selling pictures of Half Dome, he was selling Adams' Idea of Half Dome.

High end wedding photographers are not selling a better version of the same old photos, they're selling their own vision of your wedding. Their market is much smaller than the commodity wedding photo market, but they can make a heck of a lot more money. And so on.

So even if you're purely out for the money, consider going up market and selling a vision.

This is not to denigrate commodity photography. Those folks are like rice farmers: hard workers, skilled, serving a recognized need. I eat a lot of rice. I love rice. I don't want to be a rice farmer, though. That's hard work!

Iluvmycam · « **Reply #18 on:** February 01, 2015, 12:58:13 pm »

Quote from: KLaban on February 01, 2015, 04:45:24 am

Real or not, my take on landscape photography.

Nice...I like!!

AreBee · « **Reply #19 on:** February 01, 2015, 01:01:34 pm »

Stefan,

From the article:

"...almost everything has already been photographed in the best light."

False.

"...yet, after having seen the slideshow roll around three or four times, I was disgusted and wanted to throw my jug of beer at the screen"

The eye quickly becomes fatigued with the kind of images the author describes.

When the author asks "Will the Real Landscape Photography Please Stand Up?", what he means is: Please will landscape photographers start making their photos look realistic?

Author Topic: Will the Real Landscape Photography Please Stand Up ? (Read 113177 times)

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