an absolute statement

[SimonSawSunlight]

i think the only things that ultimately matter in photography are timing and perspective. everything else is opinion (or nostalgia... or masturbation... or...).

i'm saying this, but i also think that absolute statements like the above are always just a means to convey an idea (or maybe to bring one's feet back to the ground) and should not be taken too seriously in all their absoluteness. i like (intelligent) radical statements though. and now i'm just blabbering.

 

[helen.HH]

Absolute Truth , Nothing Absolute ... in All things
Seeing & Timing Create the Purrfect state of 'Shooting'

 

[robklurfield]

while sounding absolute -semantically and linguistically -- your statement leaves lots of wiggle room for (mis)interpretation. that said, I mostly agree. so, keep on blabbering.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

your statement leaves lots of wiggle room for (mis)interpretation.

yes! that's the beauty of it, isn't it? 😀

 

[gns]

Someone agrees with you...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7SXO91sR8g

There are other things of course and they can be important. But these 2 really determine more than anything else, what your picture is going to look like.

 

[bonatto]

Ultimately....

But what constructs the perspective, and what instigates the timing?

Ultimately, would the only thing that matters not be our own selves?

 

[Richard G]

Rutherford said science is either physics, or stamp collecting. And then got the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

 

[zuiko85]

If you are having fun with your hobby (or job, if photography pays the bills), then what do definitions matter?

I'm a lousy photographer but I love to tinker with photographic equipment and bits and pieces. I "see" in a box of photo related junk an invention or contraption or some such thing. I love things that can do double duty. If I can get it cheap, like 25 cents to a buck, I'll buy photographic stuff to stash away just because I see some invention in my mind.

This is where I'm coming from. Probably does not mean anything to anyone else but so what, I'm having fun.

 

[Sparrow]

... it's geometry

 

[thegman]

I'd add 'subject matter' to the mix in there.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

and now i'm just blabbering.

If you know that, then you're quite some distance ahead of the pack 😀

 

[helen.HH]

... it's geometry

Ha, I like that Stewart !!!
and to further Speculate
Geometry in Motion
With a Click of the Shutter 😀

 

[Sparrow]

Ha, I like that Stewart !!!
and to further Speculate
Geometry in Motion
With a Click of the Shutter 😀

The accumulation of points and an exploration of the voids that separate them, in both space and over time … images of shape and form in their homeland the birthplace of geometry, trapped by the genius of photography into thin wafers, planes of reality, time held forever on the printed page. The incongruity of dimensions compressed, constrained yet still perceived … time and shape recognised as a reality of sorts, portrayed by shade and light, shadow and violent sunlight as a mirage of an alternative reality.


A surfeit of time … or more properly, the absence of urgency found in the idleness, the oppression, of the Hellenic summer promoting idle contention, speculation. The geometry of inconsequential things … the art of the ordinary, connected by lines of idle imagination, as did changeless constellations converging in ancient minds. The beauty of the ordinary, of the everyday, mapped-out by the camera into simple plan … here for others to unpack, be re-projected by other minds to new perceptions of the same instant, the same thin slice of time, re-projected onto endless realities.

... bit verbose at the moment, something I'm working on but it needs a good edit

 

[Exdsc]

Photography is ultimately all about:

'I saw this scene, in the confine of this focal length, in this lighting condition and then I processed the file in this way and now look at it and tell me what you think or feel.'


Photography might not be geometry but photography is a science of visual communication - not art, "Art is creating something out of nothing" -Daido Moriyama - photography is copying what is already out there. You can only photograph what is, not what could be or what was.

 

[robklurfield]

absolutely!

yes! that's the beauty of it, isn't it? 😀

 

[Contarama]

Controlling contrast is most important. Composition is next. Then you have to get the timing right. There you have it all...almost.

This is what I have heard about "it"...

 

[tuanvinh2000]

Photography is ultimately all about:

'I saw this scene, in the confine of this focal length, in this lighting condition and then I processed the file in this way and now look at it and tell me what you think or feel.'


Photography might not be geometry but photography is a science of visual communication - not art, "Art is creating something out of nothing" -Daido Moriyama - photography is copying what is already out there. You can only photograph what is, not what could be or what was.

I believe with composition you can create something out of nothing. I have seen magical power of seeing from members here that it's totally out of ordinary things. It drives me to keep trying to convey my own vision of the daily life.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

i think different photographers
bring a different "perspective"
into it, for HCB, i think it was
geometry and add a dash of
decisive moment.

So perspective and timing as you said.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

i think the only things that ultimately matter in photography are timing and perspective. everything else is opinion (or nostalgia... or masturbation... or...).

i'm saying this, but i also think that absolute statements like the above are always just a means to convey an idea (or maybe to bring one's feet back to the ground) and should not be taken too seriously in all their absoluteness. i like (intelligent) radical statements though. and now i'm just blabbering.

All photos tell a story.
Photos must tell a story.
Digital is rubbish.
Film is for hipsters.
Rangefinders are for masochists.
All professionals use expensive SLRs.

etc etc

In an era of "best -insert noun- ever", "this is epic!" and "absolutely a-mey-zing!" being thrown gratuitously, absolutes are absolutely and epically meaningless. More of an indicator of bias and tunnel vision. Like, always.

There is only one rule: all absolutes are absolutely wrong. Always 😉

 

[OurManInTangier]

I always thought it was about the cat