Jocko
Off With The Pixies
Unsettling thoughts
Unsettling thoughts
Nearog, below you will see the first photograph I ever took, using a Kodak 127 Starmite. It was March 4, 1978. I was 14 and “interested in trains”. Not for long, I might add, although I did discover camera shake.
As my pictures appear to have confused you, I’m going to give a straight answer regarding my attitude towards photography. I see the camera as a tool which may be used either as a simple instrument for recording images or as a means of self-expression, and perhaps more importantly, self-discovery.
At 14 I photographed trains. This followed a period of great turbulence and with hindsight I can understand these pictures as marking a shaky but growing awareness of my gradual progress on the journey of life. Most - perhaps all - of what we photograph is a metaphor, even if we fail to understand it. As Doug neatly puts it, there is always a “SOMEthing” behind the thing we picture. Photography allows us to focus on this point, to select and go beyond facile surfaces, exploring ourselves and our particular vision.
I get the impression that you feel uncomfortable with the intimacy of co-creation between photographer and subject. I base this in part on your earlier question to me. I think this is a universal attribute: our culture would not constantly prate about “love” if there were no equal counterforce - not hate, but fear. The camera, I believe, is an instrument of love. We want to hide and look away, but it makes us look - to gaze unblinkingly into the face of another and, with biting precision, at the great world around us. Most photographers will tell you that photography has made them “see” with an ever-more profound intensity. As with Zen archery, what begins as a craft turns into a path to the expansion of consciousness.
Steam trains and old cars are fascinating objects, but they will lead to greater things - perhaps the things you fear and will come to understand and love. The camera certainly lies - but it tells the truth about the photographer. That first click of the shutter begins a great adventure in life, one which hopefully will teach a most important lesson: that by changing one’s viewpoint one alters reality, breaking free from preconceptions and the mental limitations that normally distort our vision.
The result is a richer understanding of the world, of the implicit grace and wonder of creation and of every being, animate and otherwise. As our old friend John Keats observed -
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty” - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Embrace beauty without fear, be it present in the face and in human desire, in the studious chomping of a hairy caterpillar or the serendipitous chaos of apartment house doorbells.
I’d like to recommend two books which deal with this area, both by Ralph Hattersley, described in the 60s as “photography’s most controversial writer”. The most accessible is the hilariously miss-titled “Beginners’ Guide to Photographing People”, which regularly appears on e-bay for pennies, and the vastly more ambitious “Discover Your Self through Photography”, easily available second-hand via services such as Alibris.
Success to all!
Ian
Unsettling thoughts
Nearog, below you will see the first photograph I ever took, using a Kodak 127 Starmite. It was March 4, 1978. I was 14 and “interested in trains”. Not for long, I might add, although I did discover camera shake.
As my pictures appear to have confused you, I’m going to give a straight answer regarding my attitude towards photography. I see the camera as a tool which may be used either as a simple instrument for recording images or as a means of self-expression, and perhaps more importantly, self-discovery.
At 14 I photographed trains. This followed a period of great turbulence and with hindsight I can understand these pictures as marking a shaky but growing awareness of my gradual progress on the journey of life. Most - perhaps all - of what we photograph is a metaphor, even if we fail to understand it. As Doug neatly puts it, there is always a “SOMEthing” behind the thing we picture. Photography allows us to focus on this point, to select and go beyond facile surfaces, exploring ourselves and our particular vision.
I get the impression that you feel uncomfortable with the intimacy of co-creation between photographer and subject. I base this in part on your earlier question to me. I think this is a universal attribute: our culture would not constantly prate about “love” if there were no equal counterforce - not hate, but fear. The camera, I believe, is an instrument of love. We want to hide and look away, but it makes us look - to gaze unblinkingly into the face of another and, with biting precision, at the great world around us. Most photographers will tell you that photography has made them “see” with an ever-more profound intensity. As with Zen archery, what begins as a craft turns into a path to the expansion of consciousness.
Steam trains and old cars are fascinating objects, but they will lead to greater things - perhaps the things you fear and will come to understand and love. The camera certainly lies - but it tells the truth about the photographer. That first click of the shutter begins a great adventure in life, one which hopefully will teach a most important lesson: that by changing one’s viewpoint one alters reality, breaking free from preconceptions and the mental limitations that normally distort our vision.
The result is a richer understanding of the world, of the implicit grace and wonder of creation and of every being, animate and otherwise. As our old friend John Keats observed -
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty” - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Embrace beauty without fear, be it present in the face and in human desire, in the studious chomping of a hairy caterpillar or the serendipitous chaos of apartment house doorbells.
I’d like to recommend two books which deal with this area, both by Ralph Hattersley, described in the 60s as “photography’s most controversial writer”. The most accessible is the hilariously miss-titled “Beginners’ Guide to Photographing People”, which regularly appears on e-bay for pennies, and the vastly more ambitious “Discover Your Self through Photography”, easily available second-hand via services such as Alibris.
Success to all!
Ian
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