What is Photography

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

I don't know you personally, just from your postings here on RFF, and I say this with all respect, because things do get misconstrued on the internet, but is there ANYTHING that you like?

Most of your postings, for a start. 😀

 

[kbg32]

Most of your postings, for a start. 😀

Thank you. :angel:

 

[Vincent.G]

I wish I have an uncle like him. 🙂

 

[telenous]

It's sound advice and conducive to the kind of photography which Larrain was a master of. The wanderer/flâneur ethos is probably not useful to all strands of photography, but I've yet to meet the photographer who is not happy with a couple of rolls in his pocket and the sun on his back. The style is a bit florid in places but it's a personal letter meant to transmit fervor and inspire its young recipient, not some kind of list of inviolable mandates. I agree with Roger, reading the original adds something to it, especially as the prose is intended to be a bit poetic. The words 'vagar y vagar' stick to mind: so appropriate in the letter of this quintessential photographer-vagabonde.

.

 

[zauhar]

Forgive me for saying that it seems like pretentious rubbish.

I thought it was beautiful and inspiring. Thanks for posting the link, Michael.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

I thought it was beautiful and inspiring.

That's good. You know, just because I don't like it doesn't mean that I expect others to dislike it also.

 

[chikne]

YIKES, cropping....

 

[jippiejee]

... sit under a tree when you’re tired ...

Enjoyed reading this letter and that part especially. When tired of the chase, unsuccessful at that as usual, some of my best frames start to happen in front of me while having a smoke under a tree. Let the scenes come to you. Be patient.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Many of us stuck at stage one.
Finding comfortable camera.
No photography started, just GAS with images taken as sharpness tests...

 

[icebear]

Is this still good advice ?

http://fotografiamagazine.com/letter-by-sergio-larrain-to-his-nephew/

Great read, thanks a lot for sharing !
I was almost laughing out loud reading the very first box/page thinking about all the nice to have feature overloaded SLR's of today 😀.

Too damn cold for sitting under a tree right now ...
And yes, of course still completely relevant (maybe apart from the enlarger though ... 😉).

 

[John E Earley]

"I can take a picture of anything. Now if I can just decide what I don't need."

 

[Rodchenko]

Seems like sound advice to me. I wish I had been told that when I was a learner.

Oh - I still am.

 

[__jc]

This is charming and inspirational. Thank you for posting it, Michael.

 

[clcolucci58]

This is about the best introduction to serious photography there can be. It applies to film and digital because it deals with the end product...... the picture, YOUR picture.

Find the camera that suits you, that feels good, and use it!

My Mamiya 645
CLC

 

[gesperon]

This is probably the best introduction to photography I have ever read... And not just photography but to life and everything in it.

 

[Hsg]

The only problem with this article is that it assumes a photographer who travels around to new places constantly. Most of us are stuck to the place where we live, and no matter how interesting a place it might be after sometime it becomes boring.

The biggest challenge in photography is overcoming this boredom, and while gear buying can be a quick fix, there is no quick fix to overcoming the natural subject boredom that occurs to every photographer.


This article is misleading because it might fill the head of a new photographer that photography is all about romantic walks and shaded trees and what not... In fact its the opposite, most of the time, its walking around aimlessly, and feeling really bored - that is the reality of photography.

 

[lynnb]

thanks for that Michael, I thought it was very good. There is enough sound advice to enable most people to get something out of it. Like the advice about editing (taping photos to the wall). I'm sure his nephew found it inspiring. What more could one ask for from such a letter?

 

[Michael Markey]

My pleasure , glad so many found it inspirational.... I did .

 

[Richard G]

Thanks Michael. I wouldn't have stopped except it was your thread. Then to find there is a link, and to a letter, from Sergio Lorrain, and to his nephew: wonderful. When a thing is written with love and humility it is a privilege to see it.

I only came a across Lorrain a few months ago, and my Amazon account has a book of his in the cart waiting for our dollar to return to where it is now....

I always enjoy Sejanus Aelianus's posts. He defies categorization. You might at times think that he is worried he will get fond of one or two of us, and makes sure he won't and we'll not sit with him either. It isn't really working. You might think he has a death wish. The model for his moniker was thrown down the steps in Rome, and worse, an ignominious fate for him and his family. Puzzling. As I said, defies categorization.

 

[Lauffray]

The only problem with this article is that it assumes a photographer who travels around to new places constantly. Most of us are stuck to the place where we live, and no matter how interesting a place it might be after sometime it becomes boring.

The biggest challenge in photography is overcoming this boredom, and while gear buying can be a quick fix, there is no quick fix to overcoming the natural subject boredom that occurs to every photographer.


This article is misleading because it might fill the head of a new photographer that photography is all about romantic walks and shaded trees and what not... In fact its the opposite, most of the time, its walking around aimlessly, and feeling really bored - that is the reality of photography.

I definitely agree with this, even new places aren't always stimulating just by their novelty.