- This topic is empty.
Mute
-
i would be really interested to hear your thoughts and comments on this set of images… really not sure what bracket of subjects they fit into – for me they are landscape but not landscape, documentary but not documentary and so on. needless to say there is a lot behind them but I’m always hesitant to harp on too much as i think it is up to the person looking at the image to decide what they are about…
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Hi Isabella,
1. I find this too distracting. My eye does not know where to start or finish looking. Theres no real central subject to start or finish with.
2. Again, there nothing much of interest to hold the viewers attention. The square crop does not do anything for the shot either. The DOF you have decided to use make the discarded items the central theme of the shot yet the way they are positioned in the shot make them hard to see.
3. Again, same issue as no 1. Too much going on. Nothing for the eye to start or finish with. The white rocks jutting in from the bottom and sides are distracting.
In short these would not be to my taste. i am not sure what you are trying to show me or what you are trying to say. Just my opinion though. Someone else may love them. :)
Mark S.
thanks for taking the time to comment, i really appreciate it.
1 is supposed to be about the destruction wrought by humanity on the environment, essentially a loss of way which leads in the end to the destruction of ourselves. The quality of the scan was not great, too dark. i made a print of it in the darkroom at 16×20 that came out much better.
2 is not cropped, neg size 6x7cm. fair point, monitor size scale not much to be seen. maybe not worth enlarged either. the phonograph in the scene was gone a few days later, one mans rubbish…
3 for me was about the light at the end of the tunnel and the impossibility of getting there through the sludge.
essentially they were about emptiness, isolation and futility, death and loss. photography for me is often a way of dealing with subjects and emotions i cannot speak about, hence the title and relevance of image 2.
i liked them quite a lot when i first made them (jan/feb) but have gone off them myself since and i gave away the prints after exhibiting them.
I think the photos are more documentary than landscape. What I see is the obvious destruction to the environment – which in turn sparked in me, thoughts and/or emotions such as sadness (that people do this), anger (that people do this), a jarring feeling and a sense of displacement (these objects do not belong here), a sense of abandonment and loss too.
There are beautiful landscapes in the world and we should appreciate them. But there is also this ugliness and you reminded us. (Thank you)
I don’t think that I would hang 20×16 versions of these on my living wall. But yet. Images like this make a greater impact and emotional connection with me when I view them whether in the print or electronic media or at exhibitions. In other words they inspire me to think about what is behind the image.
That last paragraph may sound contradictory but life is full of contradictions
thanks emjay for such a heartfelt response… really lovely!
when i first took them the category i would have put them in was indeed documentary, but after extensive research i decided (for me) they are not. documentary (or rather what i deem effective documentary) thrives on specifics – facts, information. these are vague generalizations, my emotional response to what i see and find in the landscape. they are also tied up with other more personal issues. i think to call them documentary would open myself up to way too much criticism on things that in the end are a distraction from what the images are really about…
anyway, thanks again for taking the time to respond, it is greatly appreciated
bella
Im not being a stalker I just decided to check out your pictures/posts :)
Anyway, I find them distracting to, their good but busy, I like the idea and agree they should be in documentary as they have alot to say, more then can be said from a simple landscape image. Are they HDR? Or film? The last one (to me) seems HDRified.
The first one is my favorite, my eye is drawn to what i think is a broken mannequin body, its kinda spooky (if thats what it is).
You should look into doing them with a film camera, the grain would give them a real mood that I think you’d appreciate.they are indeed on film and produced in the darkroom, its a passion of mine! i found the mannequin in a neighboring field some years ago, at the time i wasn’t quite sure what to do with it so i chucked him over the fence and left him under a tree only bringing him out again to test that particular camera… I’m quite fond of him though.
Isabella wrote:
they are indeed on film and produced in the darkroom, its a passion of mine! i found the mannequin in a neighboring field some years ago, at the time i wasn’t quite sure what to do with it so i chucked him over the fence and left him under a tree only bringing him out again to test that particular camera… I’m quite fond of him though.
Excellent! Alot of people dont bother with film anymore, especially younger people. I started using it almost two decades ago, which sounds bad but my first camera I got was when I was 8. Only recently got access to a darkroom and I love it to, nothing beats that sense of creating your image from nothing but light and a sheet of paper. Its kinda exciting.
I remember my uncle used to have a mannequin for target practice and it was fantastic looking, full of bullet holes, missing half its face, but he tossed it years ago and I never got a chance to photograph it. They can be used in really effective ways, he just seems a little lost in that one image, pity hes missing his face or he’d stand out a mile.i also was using film at around the same age… luckily got access to darkrooms about 5 years ago though and I’ve never looked back!
wow, would love one riddled with bullet holes! this guys always a bit forlorn looking, loss and confusion were part of the point of that image (1) , so i guess its effective.
Isabella wrote:
i also was using film at around the same age… luckily got access to darkrooms about 5 years ago though and I’ve never looked back!
wow, would love one riddled with bullet holes! this guys always a bit forlorn looking, loss and confusion were part of the point of that image (1) , so i guess its effective.
Yeah it works, he looks lost, without a head, could he be any other way :)
Looking at them again, I like 2, yeah its busy but it has a focal point and its pretty obvious what your trying to say. I see it out here all the time to, crap just thrown in the ditch, prams, fridges, cookers, binbags, everything, just thrown away, shows how wasteful some people are, and ignorant about the environment and shows how little respect they have for the look of the country side to. Part 3 is just a little blown out and busy. Hard to focus on it, both good images (from a documentary standpoint) :)My mum always told me if I didnt have anything good to say about something, say
nothing………….I think these images are linked to your other post about the meaning
of a photograph? I am afraid I fall into the category of a representation of what is in front
of the camera. I dont see beyond that I am afraid, To me they are pictures of flytipping
(something I hate) So I guess if they instil an emotion of any description maybe you have
achieved what you set out to do. I dont mean to rubbish your work at all so please dont
take it that way, they just dont “say” anything to me.shutterbug, thanks believe it or not i appreciate your honesty more than silence. this is after all supposed to be a critique! and art (etc) is all about opinions so not everyone has to like it. as for fly tipping it is a practice i despise, but in this country is despicably common place. the area where i found that record player is a particularly popular spot – on the edge of a raised bog. made more popular for this by being severed from the rest of itself by the new M7. some people were even stupid enough to leave their wheelie bin with address labels on, hope they’re getting a hefty fine!
i do also recognize the paradox of having taken photographs of the record players, i suppose it kinda looks like i approve. i can assure you i do not
To me these are expressionist landscapes. Nice train of thought and I like the artistic approach but they just dont work isabella. The compositions are just too busy and the images themselves are technically flawed. I do think these short of shots work better in colour with saturation boosts on the focal points of interests to make them pop and to give them a kind of grungy feel. I think you had a great oppertunity on the first with the broken manaquin?….but you needs to get in a lot closer to it to make it work. So for me Nice idea, nice artistic vision and approach but just the final shoot let you down.
interesting – technically flawed… elaborate? the scans are poor quality i admit – some over some under exposed. negs are different.
as for part 1 i have some closer ones, my tutors in college liked the wides better so i guess its a matter of opinion.
thanks for the input
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
