For the love of Pictorialism (the white plastic bag)

In a message dated 07/02/04 21:21:24 GMT Standard Time, sanking@clemson.edu
writes:

> >BTW, I would ve very interested in following a
> >"Pictorialism" discussion (to be enlightened on
> >the subject) here...
..............................................................................
.
Continuing, From our kitchen window we look out onto a landscape of a three
square mile ploughed field behind which there are low hills with the edge of a
forest to the right, a church spire and to the left a small industial estate
and a village in the distance. At present the field has been resown with grass
and is a beautiful great expanse of green. As the seasons and the light
change this scene continually presents a fresh fascination for me. Rather in the
same way that Monet found the subject of a haystack in changing light
something which he had to paint many times I have photographed our landscape in all
seasons and weathers. The cloud formations are an important changing aspect.
          Last night at 3 am at dead of night I pulled on my gum boots and
made my way a quarter of a mile in the mud across the field to retrieve a white
plastic bag which had been blown to a point right in the middle of the field
where it had decided to station itself creating an unwanted centre of
attention. My wife said I was mad to do this but to my mind this was an act of
concern for pictorialism and will have been worth the effort when I start a new
series of large format images taken with my new home built 12'' X 16'' paper
negative roll camera.
           The white plastic bag contained several empty aluminium beer cans
and had been tied to prevent them falling out..... just light enough to have
been blown by a high wind. It has crossed my mind in the past few hours that
maybe I should have snapped the scene with plastic bag in situe before
removing it from the picture but then I could always replace it if I felt this
might, after all, add to the pictorialist nature of the image.
                          Any comments? Spring is near. All the best.
                          Photographist - John Grocott - London
Received on Sun Feb 8 13:59:20 2004