Re: [Leica] Cicadas droning

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 4:36 PM +0000 2/16/00, Mike Johnston wrote:

<snip>

>Haven't you ever noticed how most "travel photography" looks utterly
>unlike the area that's photographed? Go get a slick book on your city or
>any locale you know well. How well do those photographs relate to the
>area as you experience it when you're there?
>
>Doesn't look anything like the pictures, does it? Most photography is
>deliberately dishonest. Simplified, generic pictorial simulacra. Now
>_that's_ crap. Get any of those stock photo catalogues that are as thick
>as a phone book and see if you can find three really good photographs in
>the whole darned book. I'll warn you, it's going to take some work.
>
>I can believe that people don't respond to the Tennessee highway shot.
>Actually, it's a bit sentimental, like a lot of Eggleston's work--you
>can almost feel the heat hanging in the air (that greenish sky) and hear
>the cicadas droning. If you know the south, or have memories of that
>kind of landscape, then maybe the picture will speak to you. If you
>don't, or if you respond to other kinds of subject matter, well, then,
>fine. But what's to hate? It's not like he's going for some goddamned
>slick stock shot or a "composed" bright and empty travelogue picture.
>He's certainly not trying to make it look _generic_. It's not _a_
>corner. It's _that_ corner.. That day.

I fully agree with this. I like travelling a lot, and I noticed years ago
that while I might come back with lots of photos (with an emphasis on
architecture ;-)) that I like, I often missed the flavour of the place I
visited. The Tennessee highway shot is such a flavour shot, and I respond
to it in that way. I've tried to take shots like that, and they are
definitely not easy to get right. These travel shots that I take are mostly
for my family and myself, and I am happy with these flavour shots if I
re-experience some feeling of the place when I see it, and more so if some
friends or family members respond positively. They often are shots that
other people don't like that much, but occasionally others do respond to
them. Then they become the shot that gets discussed the most. I'm not
implying that I'm in Eggleston's class, just that I seem to have tried
something similar, or at least to have seen the need for something that he
has conveyed to me about Tennessee in this shot.

In a general vein, there are many photographs I truly admire that I would
never take. Put me in the same place at the same time with the same
equipment, and I would take a different shot. Doesn't mean I don't like the
photo or the photographer's work, just that it's not something I would do.
Even after I have seen the photo, if I were in a similar place later, my
photo still would have little relationship with that of the other
photographer. If I did happen to take something like it (before or after) I
probably wouldn't print it.

And of course there is stuff that I have seen numerous times and I still
don't care for, and there is stuff that had some momentary interest which
has faded.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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