Voice In A Landscape

[dreed]

Beautiful essay! Thanks to all that brought it to us.

[Dominique_R]

Hmmm... I was curious when I saw the title, so I read it. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strangely), I've always found it difficult to find, define or assign any kind of higher or deeper meaning to my love of landscape photography. I read what others have to say about it, how they've discovered the deeper implications of this or that, how they've even discovered who they really are through some redeeming or clarifying value of the photographic activity...

All this has, I must say, always sounded to me like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. I mean, I'm happy for the guys who finally "found the way", as Lao-Tseu put it, but honestly, I'm not sure I can follow them there. Maybe I'm too much of a pragmatist, but when I look at the photos they say are emblematic of the "before" and "after" phases, I can't really tell the difference, except that the "after" ones often are blurry and technically questionable... If that is typical of a landscape photographer who's finally found the higher meaning of it all, then I have indeed found it quite some time ago, as I can remember producing such "unfortunate" pictures myself; I just chose not to show them! 

In other words, as much as I would love to move into that higher and more meaningful phase of my photographic life, I am afraid my path has not been enlightened yet —and somehow, I doubt it ever will.

[Nigel Turner]

Hmmm... I was curious when I saw the title, so I read it. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strangely), I've always found it difficult to find, define or assign any kind of higher or deeper meaning to my love of landscape photography. I read what others have to say about it, how they've discovered the deeper implications of this or that, how they've even discovered who they really are through some redeeming or clarifying value of the photographic activity...

All this has, I must say, always sounded to me like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. I mean, I'm happy for the guys who finally "found the way", as Lao-Tseu put it, but honestly, I'm not sure I can follow them there. Maybe I'm too much of a pragmatist, but when I look at the photos they say are emblematic of the "before" and "after" phases, I can't really tell the difference, except that the "after" ones often are blurry and technically questionable... If that is typical of a landscape photographer who's finally found the higher meaning of it all, then I have indeed found it quite some time ago, as I can remember producing such "unfortunate" pictures myself; I just chose not to show them! 

In other words, as much as I would love to move into that higher and more meaningful phase of my photographic life, I am afraid my path has not been enlightened yet —and somehow, I doubt it ever will.

You must have heard the term "A picture paints a thousand words"? Nowadays its changed somewhat to "A thousand words paints a picture". To me photography has gone AWOL in this modern digital age.

I loved it when photographers just went out and made photographs that meant something to them and they never felt the need to have to explain themselves to others on what they were actually trying to purvey to the actual viewer. Each photograph spoke for itself without the need for words. How times have changed.

Nigel.

[daws]

I liked the article. Found it meaningful.

Nothing says a photographer can't also be a writer, and even write about his photography.

[amolitor]

If you want to simply take sharp photographs of the landscape, well that's a perfectly decent hobby, but why would I care about your pictures versus some other chap's or versus simply looking out my window?

If you want me to have an interest in your pictures specifically you have to have a point of view, an idea, an opinion.

I thought the piece was the best thing I've read on Lula.

[mecrox]

What is involved in moving beyond technically proficient postcard-pretty images which could have been taken by anyone, and what does one find when one gets there? It may not be what one expects, and it may be an unsettling, even scary place. But ... it is what was always calling to us. I thought this was a beautifully expressed essay.

[stamper]

Hmmm... I was curious when I saw the title, so I read it. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strangely), I've always found it difficult to find, define or assign any kind of higher or deeper meaning to my love of landscape photography. I read what others have to say about it, how they've discovered the deeper implications of this or that, how they've even discovered who they really are through some redeeming or clarifying value of the photographic activity...

All this has, I must say, always sounded to me like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. I mean, I'm happy for the guys who finally "found the way", as Lao-Tseu put it, but honestly, I'm not sure I can follow them there. Maybe I'm too much of a pragmatist, but when I look at the photos they say are emblematic of the "before" and "after" phases, I can't really tell the difference, except that the "after" ones often are blurry and technically questionable... If that is typical of a landscape photographer who's finally found the higher meaning of it all, then I have indeed found it quite some time ago, as I can remember producing such "unfortunate" pictures myself; I just chose not to show them! 

In other words, as much as I would love to move into that higher and more meaningful phase of my photographic life, I am afraid my path has not been enlightened yet —and somehow, I doubt it ever will.

[/

Agreed!

[graeme]

You must have heard the term "A picture paints a thousand words"? Nowadays its changed somewhat to "A thousand words paints a picture". To me photography has gone AWOL in this modern digital age.

I loved it when photographers just went out and made photographs that meant something to them and they never felt the need to have to explain themselves to others on what they were actually trying to purvey to the actual viewer. Each photograph spoke for itself without the need for words. How times have changed.

Nigel.

Generally I agree: Visual artists are often pretty awful prose writers.

However, I thought this article seemed pretty honest & unpretentious.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Generally I agree: Visual artists are often pretty awful prose writers.

However, I thought this article seemed pretty honest & unpretentious.

+1.

[MarkL]

Hmmm... I was curious when I saw the title, so I read it. Strangely enough (or maybe not so strangely), I've always found it difficult to find, define or assign any kind of higher or deeper meaning to my love of landscape photography. I read what others have to say about it, how they've discovered the deeper implications of this or that, how they've even discovered who they really are through some redeeming or clarifying value of the photographic activity...

All this has, I must say, always sounded to me like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. I mean, I'm happy for the guys who finally "found the way", as Lao-Tseu put it, but honestly, I'm not sure I can follow them there. Maybe I'm too much of a pragmatist, but when I look at the photos they say are emblematic of the "before" and "after" phases, I can't really tell the difference, except that the "after" ones often are blurry and technically questionable... If that is typical of a landscape photographer who's finally found the higher meaning of it all, then I have indeed found it quite some time ago, as I can remember producing such "unfortunate" pictures myself; I just chose not to show them! 

I don't think most photography really gets beyond "I saw this and thought it was important enough to put a frame around it and capture" especially landscape photography. As an art form, photography really isn't that creative because at it's heart it is recording reflected light rather than creating something entirely from scratch. I struggle reading attempts to attribute additional meaning which often feel like ways to try and legitimise it as ‘art’ or otherwise elevate beyond what it is.

[jeremyrh]

If you want to simply take sharp photographs of the landscape, well that's a perfectly decent hobby, but why would I care about your pictures versus some other chap's or versus simply looking out my window?

If you want me to have an interest in your pictures specifically you have to have a point of view, an idea, an opinion.

I thought the piece was the best thing I've read on Lula.

This.

Pretty as the sunset pictures are, you look at them and put them away. A picture that makes you think - or even look again - demands something more.

[stamper]

I don't think most photography really gets beyond "I saw this and thought it was important enough to put a frame around it and capture" especially landscape photography. As an art form, photography really isn't that creative because at it's heart it is recording reflected light rather than creating something entirely from scratch. I struggle reading attempts to attribute additional meaning which often feel like ways to try and legitimise it as ‘art’ or otherwise elevate beyond what it is.

Well said. One can "think" what they like when they capture an image and have all sorts of thoughts about it but when they process it and show it to someone then that person won't know what thoughts were in the photographer's mind? They will have thoughts of their own based on their own experiences and likes and then dismiss the image or praise it. Too much "thinking" is a waste of time imo.

[Rob C]

Just a quickie: the article could have been reduced to a single phrase: the difference between stock and art.

Rob C

[GrahamBy]

As an art form, photography really isn't that creative because at it's heart it is recording reflected light rather than creating something entirely from scratch.

Duane Michals said something similar in an interview recently... but of course it may be that the photographer has created the thing reflecting the light. Although rarely from scratch 

[MarkL]

Duane Michals said something similar in an interview recently... but of course it may be that the photographer has created the thing reflecting the light. Although rarely from scratch 

Ha ha yes. It does also vary a bit by genre: a big reason I shoot fashion is because it is about creating something and while not totally from scratch, it is at least choosing and combining many different elements (model, location, hair, makeup, clothes, lighting) rather than simply seeing/finding something existing that might be a good picture.

[NancyP]

I guess the big question is, how do you invest a landscape photograph with emotion, beyond the "pretty picture"? And, is the key just photographing where you live, day to day, instead of going to exotic locations? People have feelings and associations about where they live - not necessarily so, when being a tourist elsewhere.

[amolitor]

The answer to how one invests a landscape, or any other photo, with emotion is deeply personal.

You have to look at a lot of pictures, and have a rough idea how to produce a lot of effects. Then you mull it over and, if you are lucky, you get an idea.

If you are luckier still the idea proves to be doable, and in fact works.

But there's no formula. You have to feel, and then you have to translate. There are techniques you can use to help, but they boil down to meditation, with breaks.

[Alan Klein]

His web site has a few more pictures that I think reflect more of what he is saying. 

[stamper]

My liking for an image or a subject is basically a gut instinct which I find is hard to describe. If I showed someone a favourite image I had taken and the person asked me to describe what attracted me to it I would be lost for words. I couldn't/wouldn't try to make up a description and I suspect a lot of photographers have an "over active imagination" when they talk about their images?

[AreBee]

Mark,

...a big reason I shoot fashion is because it is about creating something and while not totally from scratch, it is at least choosing and combining many different elements (model, location, hair, makeup, clothes, lighting) rather than simply seeing/finding something existing that might be a good picture.

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.

Credit: Ansel Adams