Ericamb's Blog

Photographic Evangels

eml8 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:19:06 +0000

I like the description of photography as being “…a mystic receptivity to the world which requires that the photographer pass through a cloud of unknowing.” The mind is the blank canvas. There’s nothing expected of you from anyone else. Your mind is doing the driving, the creating, the identifying with the subject. I think Sontag is right that the “scattershot method” yields impressive results. Photographers don’t neccessarily have to have an image in mind when shooting.
“Where the claims of knowledge falter, the claims of creativity take up the slack.”
I like the Sontag points out how photographs are successful when they are not necessarily intended to be different, but are simply the manifestation of self expression by a unique person. “The thing to be feared most is the artificially contrived.”
I think it’s altogether necessary as a photographer to capture something mysterious in my photographs. I like ethereal photographs that make me feel something, whether nostalgia or urgency, and that’s what I want my photographs to emulate. That’s why I really enjoy Uta Barth’s work. It’s all about the light, and it’s up to the viewer to find what she’s getting at. Most of her photographs are open for interpretation, and beautiful that way.
Couldn’t agree more that “The traditional fine arts rely on the distinction between authentic and fake, between original and copy, between good taste and bad taste; the media blur, if they do not abolish outright, these distinctions.”
I would contend that all art aspired to the condition of music AND photography. They are on the same par in my mind.

The Herosim of Vision

eml8 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:39:32 +0000

Photographs, rather than the world, have become the standard for something beautiful.
“While we give it credit only for depicting the merest surface, it actually brings out the secret character with a truth that no painter would ever venture upon, even could he detect it.” This is so true and evident in work such as Richard Avadon’s portraiture. He always seems to capture an element of personality, a secret that renders his subjects exposed.
“You cannot claim to have really seen something unless you have photographed it.” I love this line because it simply saying that pictures have the ability to seduce the eyes. Even a commonplace object becomes worth searching if it is photographed. Photographs have changed the idea of reality.
An image which comes into being “by the agency of light alone, without any aid whatever from the artists pencil.”
I like that photographs can “wrench things from their context” in order to see them freshly. I think everything should be seen with a “clean pair of eyes,” as David Gray says. People should be able to look at things, whether objects or situations, objectively, before deciding what their perspectives are. Opinions aren’t innate. They are formed, often based on where we live and who our parents are. I think that people should be more open to see truth for what it is despite these factors. The beauty of what photography teaches us is that there are many ways to view the same thing. I love that people have come to realize that photography is, in fact, a personal experience, “not just a record but an evaluation of the world.” I think what’s so interesting is that God created each person uniquely, and everyone sees the world through their own unique eyes, in their own unique ways. But despite our different ways of viewing the world, the world is there. It has been before us and it will be after us. Thus there is truth, despite our perceptions.
I disagree that photography creates estrangement from reality. I love abstract photography for the reasons Sontag pinpoints in this chapter, because of its ability to capture fractions of objects, the “dislocating vision that only the camera supplies.” Taking pictures has trained me to be able to see these things this way, frame them, and appreciate them even without a camera in hand. I feel that I can see the world and appreciate it more for the potential photographs it yields without being disappointed when I don’t have my camera, though I am always grateful to have it if something beautiful presents itself.
I love it when photographs “violate ordinary vision,” and I think that’s an amazing way of putting it. When you are shocked by a photograph it is a truly beautiful, enlightening moment.
“The force of a photograph is that it keeps open to scrutiny instants which the normal flow of time immediately replaces.”

Melancholy Objects

eml8 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:47:45 +0000

I love how photography almost depends, as we learned from the documentary we watched the first day of class, on mistakes, on unique glitches that are unintentional. We are often, as photographers, endebted to inadvertance. “Surrealists misunderstood what was most brutally moving, irrational, unassimilable, mysterious – time itself.” I love that photographs preserve the past and allow every modern man a window from which to view an otherwise imaginary scene.
I like how Sontag compares Sander’s photography with Vroman’s, explaining the difference between their photographs by recognizing that Sander was ignorant of the fact that he was recording a “disappearing world,” thus his pictures came off as moving, whereas Vroman knew both that the world he photographed was disappearing and also that he could not stop it, which resulted in unemotional photos.
Another part of the reading this week that caught my attention was when Sontag describes how photographers like Vroman exemplify the “predatory” side of photography, in which they invade privacy and sacredness (such as of Indian life) for the sake of a photograph. I can’t help but notice that she goes on to say, “…if necessary paying the Indians to pose and getting them to revise their ceremonies to provide more photogenic material.” I feel like photographs that seek to document such “dying worlds” should never try to pose anything. I think the beauty of photography is in its organic capture of life as is, not life as someone thinks it should be. (Although it would be interesting to conduct a project comparing life as it is with life as the photographer wishes it was.)
“The photographer both loots and preserves, denounces and consecrates.” Lovely line.
I agree with Sontag that there is always a sense of the past present in photographs that seem to encapsulate the present. Photography is an art of collecting what is real (everything), and to me it seems a fitting goal to convince Surrealists of the vanity of trying to understand it all.

America, Seen through Photographs, Darkly

eml8 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:47:38 +0000

There is something truly remarkable about being able to see the beauty in everything. If this is the pursuit of modern photographers, more power to them. I see how the assignment for this week ties in with this chapter in that we are taking an egg – the most plain and ordinary object around, and exploring how beautiful it can be. I love the way Sontag compares and contrasts the photography of Steichen and Arbus. “The photographer chooses oddity, chases it, frames it, develops it, titles it.” I like this line. It makes me wonder why Arbus noticed the flaws in people. What drove that desire in her to find peoples’ flaws? What was she really saying through her art? Maybe she was lonely and tormented. Maybe she needed to find the flaws in others in order to feel flawless, or to be comfortable with her own flaws. It’s interesting that her subjects don’t seem phased by the fact that she is photographing them, that they appear self-accepting. Maybe she’s trying to show that we, as humans, have to accept ourselves – at least our physical appearences, which we can alter but not change. I like the idea that self-revelation is “a continuous, evenly distributed process.” I think in Arbus’s case, she sought pain “not to feel more but to feel less.”
“Boredom is the reverse side of fascination.” I can relate to Arbus’s statement, “They fascinate me when I’ve barely heard of them.” It is as if she saw mystery in everone that drew her to them. “Arbus’s interest in freaks expresses a desire to violate her own innocence, to undermine her sense of being privilaged, to vent her frustration at being safe.” Honestly, I can totally relate to this frustration and the urge to defy it, whether it be completely within myself or because of the way it makes me feel when I’m aware of when others percieve me as “innocent” or “privilaged” or “safe.” This is what I mean when I say photography teaches you about yourself.

Why I Take Pictures

eml8 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:03:10 +0000

I take pictures for some of the same reasons I think everyone does. It gives me a sense of control over my environment, a sense that I have control over what I see. I feel like photography teaches me about my own perspectives and I see it as a journalistic adventure. I guess it’s a different way of collecting time, a chronology of my life and the way I see the world not only for my own benefit, but to appease something within me that wants to be heard and known. I feel that it isolates me from my environment as well, sets me apart in a unique solitude that I love.

In Plato’s Cave

eml8 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:37:14 +0000

I really enjoyed this reading. I love Sontag’s poetic style of writing. It is both interesting and inspiring. She writes about aspects of photography which are totally relevent and shed light on what it means to be human, and how we use photography to cope with life, in a way. For my response, I chose to record some of the quotes that really struck me from this chapter and respond to each.
“Picture-taking is an event in itself, and one with even more preemptory rights – to interfere with, to invade, or to ignore whatever is going on.” I feel like this fact appeals to our human sense of control. Taking pictures is a way to control our enviornment in a way. When I take a picture, I tend to feel invasive. I feel like I am taking a peice of something that does not belong to me, whether that be an object or a person.
“the image-world that bids to outlast us all.” This is so poetic. Again, I feel that this excites a sense of control within us; that we are creating something immortal when we are, in fact, mortal.
“Photography is an elegiac art, a twilight art.” –Beautiful. I love this about photography. I feel like it takes effort to view any image indifferently.
“Photographs cannot create a moral position, but they can reinforce one – and can help build a nascent one.” Because photography appeals to people on an emotional level, I think it is an effective way of expressing one’s beliefs about the world. I want my pictures to be thought-provoking for others, but I also want them to teach me about my own perspectives.
“In these last decades, ‘concerned’ photography has done at least as much to deaden conscience as to arouse it.” I think this statement is so perceptive and I could not agree more. That is the irony of photography and the media. It’s like anything really; a kiss. The first time it gives you a rush you won’t soon forget. But before you know it, it’s commonplace. It’s like listening to a beautiful song. You can’t help but overplay it. I could ponder this for hours.
“Image-junkies; it is the most irresistable form of mental pollution.” I want my photographs to be a breath of fresh air in a squalid and polluted society.
“…to turn experience itself into a way of seeing.” This is an amazing insight.

Sally Mann – What Remains

eml8 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:49:10 +0000

This was a very though-provoking documentary on the life of an artist I’d never heard of. We are acquainted with Sally Mann during an interesting time in her life. We are given a condensed history of her life and an introduction to her bodies of work. The photos of her children are awe-inspiring and honest. I also appreciate her landscape photographs, which portray her romantic and sentimental style. It seems to me that her work as a whole could have been integrated into her final project on death. All of her photographs ask questions that they simultaneously answer. It was inspiring to be able to see the motivation behind it, how it began and what it evolved into.

“What hasn’t been done before?” is not the question to be asked at the onset of a project. The questions that are most poignant and meaningful are those that are deep within oneself. If you can explore those questions through an artistic medium like photography the way Sally Mann does, the product of your art seems essentially effortless. When an artist becomes a crowd pleaser, something beautiful has died.

Hello world!

eml8 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:32:04 +0000

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