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Author Topic: Landscape article - Peter Eastway  (Read 12747 times)

Rand47

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #60 on: November 20, 2018, 04:07:03 pm »

The more I think about the language used in the article, the more I think there's a rat there, somewhere.

Take "factual" versus "room for interpretation"?

"Authentic" versus "impure"?

Etc.

After thinking about it for a while I think all these terms are loaded with "value connotation" that actually obfuscates rather than clarifies.

For a long time I've used "literal" and "non-literal."  I'm either going for "this is how it looked" (literal) or "this is how I interpret what I saw" (non-literal).  Much less value laden.  Neither literal nor non-literal speak to whether something is authentic, or impure, or factual.  That kind of language is artsy-fartsy nonsense and the use of those kinds of value laden words connote an underlying "position" even when the use of them is supposedly "neutral."

One man's opinion.

Rand
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #61 on: November 20, 2018, 04:28:42 pm »

Speaking of Peter Eastway...

There are several photographers who inspire my photography: Ernst Haas, Eric Meola, Pete Turner, Jay Maisel. But there is one particular photograph that profoundly changed my view on photography and determined my future direction. And that single one was by Peter Eastway, many years ago. I was positively shocked. I always wanted to know "what else is there" (paraphrasing Minor White) and how to venture beyond reality, while remaining firmly grounded in it. To add the element of how I see it or how I want to see it, not just how it looks like. To try to distill the essence of reality, and reduce it to it.

For some reason, I never approached that level of abstraction in my landscapes, but it just occurred to me that my inspiration from that single Peter Eastway's image finally resulted in my latest award-winning architectural image, The River of Gold (or Golden Wave, alternatively).


« Last Edit: November 20, 2018, 05:14:17 pm by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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Rand47

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #62 on: November 20, 2018, 05:05:24 pm »

Slobodan,

Ernst Hass' "The Creation" is one of my prized possessions.  That book has inspired me for many years now.

Rand
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Kevin Raber

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #63 on: November 20, 2018, 10:02:33 pm »

I agree with Slobodan.  I have had the privilege to have Peter as a friend for many years.  He and I have photographed together in many different corners of the world and he always inspires me.  He's a great human and a super friend. We have been talking of doing more and more together in the future so stay tuned.
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jeremyrh

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #64 on: November 21, 2018, 03:42:11 am »

my latest award-winning architectural image, The River of Gold

No politics on the forum. Slobo. Besides, those rumours were false.
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rabanito

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #65 on: November 21, 2018, 04:03:42 am »

...I always wanted to know "what else is there" (paraphrasing Minor White) ...

I really like that phrase.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #66 on: November 21, 2018, 08:36:29 am »

No politics on the forum. Slobo. Besides, those rumours were false.

Omg, it took me a few seconds to figure that one out 🤣

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #67 on: November 21, 2018, 08:43:30 am »

I really like that phrase.

Me too. It is one of the two quotes I am using to describe my approach to photography in the About section on my website.

The whole quote is:

One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.”

Minor White

jeremyrh

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #68 on: November 21, 2018, 09:41:00 am »

One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.”

<copied for future use>
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Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #69 on: November 21, 2018, 12:43:49 pm »

Just to mention that the concept of Ideal(ized) Landscape is a known concept in paintings. In other words, photography did not invent that concept, i.e., the attempt to represent reality the way we would like to see it, not the way it is.
Excellent example is the Hudson River school of painting in the 1800s.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #70 on: November 21, 2018, 01:02:11 pm »

While I was in a Nicosia (Cyprus) museum recently, I came across this side note that speaks about idealized landscape:

Peter McLennan

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #71 on: November 21, 2018, 02:53:42 pm »

Two points, if I may:

1) Anybody here ever done any advertising photography?  I thought so. :)

2) The manipulation begins when you raise the viewfinder to your eye.  Everything else is just a matter of degree.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #72 on: November 21, 2018, 03:21:28 pm »

... 2) The manipulation begins when you raise the viewfinder to your eye.  Everything else is just a matter of degree.

Breaking the law begins when you jaywalk. Mass shooting or mass murder is also breaking the law. It is just a matter of degree.

faberryman

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #73 on: November 21, 2018, 03:36:10 pm »

Breaking the law begins when you jaywalk. Mass shooting or mass murder is also breaking the law. It is just a matter of degree.
And what law of photography prohibits manipulation?
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #74 on: November 21, 2018, 04:23:40 pm »

And what law of photography prohibits manipulation?

Let's clarify a few things here: (1) there are no "laws of photography" and (2) every photograph is a manipulation. Those two facts aren't the essence of this discussion. The discussion is about how far we can let our creative imagination take us before a photograph no longer even pretends to be a realistic rendition of a scene, but rather uses the scene, or scenes, as creative raw material to craft another kind of image. The question is whether doing that still qualifies as "photography", which in terms of the etiology of the word means "painting with light". We can paint anything with light much as we can with a paint brush, albeit the media are different. So yes, it all qualifies as "photography" and the output qualifies as "photographs". In the final analysis, it's the output that matters, different people see the qualities of that output differently, so quality is judgmental, and in the final analysis whether any of us think it's any good goes back to what Alan Goldhammer said many posts previous: "would I hang it my living room" (or put it in my collection).
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #75 on: November 21, 2018, 05:38:14 pm »

And what law of photography prohibits manipulation?

I don't disagree with a word you say Mark, BUT...

When you run a 'Landscape Photography' competition, then surely the title of the contest suggests the images should represent a definable landscape and not an illusionary landscape?

If I were to clone a large oak tree in full leaf, growing out of the top of Mount Everest, would that be allowed into this particular 'Landscape Photography' competition? I think it probably wouldn't be, or how about Saturn with all its rings hovering 20ft over my back garden? So again I imagine this type of work would be thrown out and found to be unacceptable to the competition organiser, not to mention the other competitors. So to say that anything goes and it is OK, is not really true is it? Because even the person running this contest will have his limits.

So the question then becomes, if we are going to have limits (for competitions at least), then surely it should be an industry agreed standard type of limit and not what an organiser, who is being paid and deems to be acceptable on any given day, chooses to allow..

If anyone wants to put their work into a photography competition, then put your work into the WorldPhoto.org. It's free (yes FREE) and the prize values are about the same and it is also being run by recognised industry representatives from Sony - and if you are selected as a winner, then you may be asked to show them the RAW file the image came from.

Did you also know, that in a large competition and especially a fee paying competition of $25 per shot like this one is, that what you get for you money, is someone skimming through the images at a rate of around 1 or 2 images per second. Which if my maths serves me correctly, works out to around $18,000 per hour - which is nice work if you can get it I suppose...

Dave
« Last Edit: November 22, 2018, 05:22:36 am by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #76 on: November 21, 2018, 05:44:13 pm »

And what law of photography prohibits manipulation?

What that question has to do with what you quoted I said?

The point I was making is that of course it is a matter of degree, but that degree matters.

Mark D Segal

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #77 on: November 21, 2018, 05:46:39 pm »

I don't disagree with a word you say Mark, BUT...

When you run a 'Landscape Photography' competition, ................
Dave

I have nothing to do with competitions, so whatever they specify for their entry conditions reflects their taste and priorities and isn't necessarily a useful criterion of anything for me.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #78 on: November 21, 2018, 05:47:03 pm »

... every photograph is a manipulation...

Mark, I think Andrew Molitor already explained earlier, more eloquently than I could, why such statement is misleading and meaningless.

Mark D Segal

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Re: Landscape article - Peter Eastway
« Reply #79 on: November 21, 2018, 05:49:22 pm »

Mark, I think Andrew Molitor already explained earlier, more eloquently than I could, why such statement is misleading and meaningless.

Ya, but it remains to be the case anyhow.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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