RE: Landscape Photography

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From: Steve Bell (veracity000@earthlink.net)
Date: 09/03/02-12:59:56 PM Z


        Ok, when it comes to me finding most landscape photography boring, i'm
going to relate it to the way i feel about poetry. I really hope this
doesn't start a discussion on poetry, that would be ridiculously off topic.
but here goes; when it comes to poetry, generally i dislike it. i think it
is boring and mostly bad. the reason for this is because 90% of the poetry
i've read, be it by a famous writer or a teenage student, has been pretty
bad.
        my feelings on landscapes are somewhat the same. generally i find
landscapes boring because so many people do them and so many people do them
by a prescribed, overused formula. be it the rule of 3rds or whatever other
'rule' people use, it is not often that i see a very unique landscape
photo. when i do, i must say, i very much enjoy and appreciate it. i
remember a photo exhibition in a restaurant in downtown baltimore that i
went to by a guy named Tony Sweet. he had some really nice landscape shots
in which he used multiple exposures. i was very impressed by some of these.
his website is: http://www.tonysweetphotography.com/ ; and in particular:
http://www.tonysweetphotography.com/Impressionist/impres2/impres2.html ; i
can't find the particular print that i'm talking about, but the one i've
linked here uses the same technique he used for a nicely composed
landscape. it was a very unique image that i enjoyed immensley. i can
appreciate a good landscape, but i don't think i should be expected to get
excited about a photographer who uses the same old formulae to produce the
same old prints.
        last fall i took my first photography class, and i was obsessed with
getting the perfect landscape. i read 'the negative', i read 'the print', i
bought the necessary filters and i went out and shot and shot and shot and
shot. i suppose it is very possible that i have bored myself. i being one
of those who used the same old formulae to make the same old prints.
granted i was satisfied with my work and my ability to master the
technicalities of landscape photography, and of course it helped me to
master the technicalities of photography in general, but i eventually was
bored of it. the spring semester last year i took 'intermediate
photography' the second photo class in my school. one of our assignments
was based on photojournalism. we were to shoot an event. i chose to shoot
the massive protests that happened in april in Washington, DC. in 3 days i
shot almost 15 rolls of film, and since then i've had a hard time pointing
my camera at anything but people. i found it extremely exhilerating and
rewarding and far more interesting to capture a moment, an instant of human
life and emotion that i did shooting landscapes. i have not shot a
landscape since.
        i think when it comes down to it i find photography as sociology, so to
speak, much more interesting.

        i think it also may have something to do with what Shannon said:

        "Sometimes I think that urban people are too absorbed with
        the human world to even notice that there is another, non-human world
        out there. That is a kind of urban provincialism that belies the
        notion that urban people are by definition more sophisticated and in
        touch with the real world than rural people. It all depends on what
        you mean by "the real world."

        this is probably very true with many people; people being obsessed with
their urban surroundings. i think some of this may have to do with the
'bohemian' lifestyle that so many artists hold dear. this lifestyle being
based on urbanity.
        i was talking with my friend last night about how i need to come up with a
theme for my photo class this semester, and she asked me, "what does your
life consist of?". my answer, and i'm being honest that this was my answer,
so don't judge. it's the summer time and i'm 19. anyway, my answer was,
"going to diners and having sex." half joking. but really, my best friend
and i are obsessed with going to diners. we seek them out. so my friend
told me i should choose something central to my life as my theme. i went on
about how shooting diners seems so cliche`. and she told me about how a lot
of art critics/analysts/whatever, think that people shoot diners so much
due to the idea of 'authentic space'. does anyone know anything about this?
she tried to explain it to me, but i'm not sure i caught her meaning. i
feel like it has a lot to do with the current aversion to landscape
photography and nature photography in general. either way, i think bohemia
has a lot to do with it.
        i think people want to feel like they some kind of unique sociological
substance in their work, and they want to see it in the work of others too.
i'm pretty sure that's my stance. i hope i haven't gone too off course.

regards,

Steve

> [Original Message]
> From: Kerik <Kerik@Kerik.com>
> To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
> Date: 9/3/2002 12:53:26 PM
> Subject: Landscape Photography
>
> Related to the recent discussion, there is an interesting story on the

> Living on Earth (PBS) website about the ethics of "nature" photography.

> Go here to listen if you're so inclined: http://www.loe.org/index.php.

>

> And to whoever it was that mentioned that he/she found most landscape

> photography boring, it really bores me to read that... How 'bout telling

> us what photography/art that you DON'T find boring?? And why.

>

> Kerik

>

>

> "Nail two things together that have never been nailed together before

> and some schmuck will buy it!"

> - George Carlin

--- Steve Bell
--- Veracity000@earthlink.net
--- http://www.unbeknownst.org/~insurrective /
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/insurrection
--- In fact, rock, rather than being an example of how freedom can be
achieved within the capitalist structure, is
     an example of how capitalism can, almost without a conscious effort,
deceive those whom it oppresses...So
     effective has the rock industry been in encouraging the spirit of
optimistic youth take-over that rock's truly
     hard political edge, it's constant exploration of the varieties of
youthful frustration, has been ignored
     and softened. --Michael Lydon


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