jeudi 21 octobre 2004

Looking at Details... So start looking for them... I showed some printouts of my recent photoblogs to a few friends in the bar this morning. Those of an artistic persuasion studied my close-ups and semi-abstract details... especially the images French toast, Wall Detail and My Two Feet. The others who were masons, builders or unemployed didn't pause over these shots but looked more interested in the "normal" views... normal used in the sense of what the eye sees, i.e., scenes and vistas. Even though our eyes take in a wide view of the world we focus and concentrate on very small areas much of the time. When working with our hands we concentrate on the area around our fingers... when taking a golf swing on an area as small as the ball. So we all look at small areas within our peripheral vision... but is it only the artistic community who examines what is there? I mentioned again to a painter (artist not decorator), who was drinking coffee with me, the idea of photographing say a couple of dozen interesting details from around the town and mounting an exhibition at the Tourist Office so that visitors, local people and schoolchildren with their teachers could search them out as if on a Treasure Trail. The idea being to encourage interest in back streets, hidden alleys, off-the-beaten-tracks, vernacular architecture, symbolism of signs and icons, changes of styles throughout the centuries (our church is 1002 years old so a number of periods to be observed within those hallowed walls), age estimation by comparing weathering of natural materials, and so on. The first criticism was that people don't look at such things - which unfortunately is probably true - and you only have to look at most people in the street to see just that. I remember being told at Art College to look above eye-level as often as possible and I would be surprised at what I saw. It was true... Victorian Manchester had a wealth of detail that few would have ever noticed and fewer studied and drawn. Considering that those many ornate details were designed, approved by committee, paid for, sculpted or constructed, erected... to be forgotten, is odd, but typical. And yet we continue to live, work and play not in uniform, undecorated boxes but elaborately detailed and ornamented ones. A probing question is - can you describe unusual details in and around your home and office building without having to look at them first. I look at details all the time when I have a camera with me... which is most of the time anyway! Take the example above, for instance... I must have photographed it a couple of dozen times in the past five years on formats from 35mm to 5x7 inches, with creaky door open, ajar and closed, including items and empty, in rain and shine, colour and black-and-white... as well as printing it big and small, post-toned for cold and warm effect... and probably more. Why, because I notice the detail every time I walk to the shops. And when I photograph it passers-by stand and stare as if I'm slightly cuckoo... and in a way I am because I'm obsessed with details. In reality, though, it is simply that I like observing everything... looking at form and function, shape and shadow, tone and texture, use and abuse as the rusty door will probably fall away from it's hinges before long. Everything has a life and therefore a history and so I like to record some part of the transition, preferably traditionally on silver-based film, with fibre-based prints to keep. Of course my old-fashioned approach doesn't suffer one of the big problems, or dangers, with digital photography. Too many images taken nowadays are simply wiped from the camera's storage disk. For a century or more national newspapers hoarded great archives of photographically recorded material dating from Victorian times. However, assigned photographers working for the press today simply upload their shots from location, or pub, to an Editor's office via Mac, modem and mobile... and trash the rest with a mouse click. And the media doesn't want or have to keep today's images unless they are something very special, newsworthy and worth a few grand in resale fees! I cringed when Bill Gates started buying up the famous picture collections and stock agencies a few years ago... but maybe he's doing future generations a favour by becoming the guardian of photo-recorded social history. All at a price of course... would there be a philanthropic reason for accumulating and copyrighting such a monopoly stake? But I carry on in my own small way... recording here and there, not for posterity, but as continual practice, or graphic training, for my eye, mind and other related faculties. It's a pleasant pastime, there's no pressure and it (I was going to say it keeps me off the streets!) keeps me active! 8:52:17 PM    comment []