While reading this morning I came across a bit of writing by a photographer who prefers not to engage in any post-shutter-click “manipulation” of the photograph because his goal is to “record” what is there.
Thinking about this a bit I realize that “recording” is not very interesting to me. Instead I prefer to try to reveal what is there.
Seen at Paul Butzi’s Musings of Photography blog, a link to something Mike Johnson wrote:
“Cameras don’t take pictures, true; but then, people don’t take pictures either. People with cameras take pictures.”
Yes, a concise and direct response to the unending and pointless debates between those who want to believe that it is either all about the camera or not about the camera at all. Thank you for that!
Taking a break from the usual landscape stuff you’ll find here – don’t worry, it will be back soon! – I’d like to draw attention to a New York Times article posted today: “Images, the Law and War” (You may need to “join” the site there to see it.)
I’m not going to take sides here – not at the moment, anyway – on the question of whether President Obama is right or wrong to withhold the release of additional photographs that reveal painful truths about our treatment of captives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have an opinion, but I’d rather you consider the article and the underlying issues it illustrates for yourself. The article, in my view, does an admirable job of laying out the complex and conflicting values that collide in questions like this one.
It also provides clear evidence of the power of photographic images and their ability to affect those who see them.
I was just thinking a bit more about today’s photograph and how it (I hope!) illustrates something I’ve learned about my own photography – as much as I like to visit and photograph new places, I think that I enjoy more getting to photography and know more deeply a few places that I visit regularly.
The photograph was made in a place I’ve visited literally dozens of times… in the past year alone. I’ve walked past this exact spot carrying my photo gear too many times to count. I’ve even stopped and looked at this spot and thought about making a photograph more than once. On a couple of occasions I have made a photograph, only to realize that I hadn’t quite figured out how to shoot this little scene.
But I keep going back to this now-familiar place. Sometimes a visit turns out to be a bust photographically, and I just return with the benefits of some quiet time walking in the hills. On another trip I may discover a new thing – rock, tree, view, bird – that I hadn’t seen before. On this morning – a foggy morning like many others I’ve seen in almost this exact spot – several things came together at once, unexpectedly, and it a way that will likely never be repeated. The hills were still a bit green but with enough brown to suggest the familiar colors of the approaching California summer. A few flowers were blossoming in the foreground. The atmosphere was in that magical state halfway between fog and sunlight, and the light through the moving fog created some definition on the hills and grass.
I happened to be in this very familiar spot at the right moment in time, happened to look up, and happened to see something in this scene that I had probably not seen until this day… and I got a photograph of this familiar place that I like because I was there, I know the place well, and I was attentive to my surroundings.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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