A Fine Line
There is often a fine line, in photography as elsewhere, between success and failure. Take this photograph, for instance.
You might remember the image from last month’s blog, or you might have stumbled upon it on Facebook or Instagram. More to the point, for the purposes of this discussion, I posted it in the Frames Photography Circle (FPC, to the cognoscenti) one of those groups where you pay your membership fee and in return receive a printed photo magazine (Frames Magazine is fabulous, honestly) as well as the opportunity to participate in various online forums and events including - and this is where I am coming to the point - the opportunity to share your images, for feedback and comment by your fellow photographers.
So share it I did, and the results were interesting, to say the least.
Much as the telephone pole to the right of the image (deliberately, I hasten to add) divides and leans out of it, so too did the pole divide opinion. Initial comments, from some members of the FPC group, saw the pole as a ‘distraction,’ as pointing the wrong way, i.e. out of instead of into the frame, leading to an ‘unbalanced’ image, as if somehow the pole had landed up there by accident, as a result of carelessness by the photographer, or perhaps as a poor aesthetic or design choice.
One well-meaning individual went so far to copy of the image and make his own edits, which he then posted back to the group and to me as, presumably, preferable to mine.
Clearly, for some, my photographic education was either not very good or incomplete. Which of course it may be - there is always something to learn, and the various comments and edits were indeed interesting and thoughtful, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with them. Actually, I didn’t agree with them at all. But, I thought, people had taken the time to look at the photograph, and formulate a response.
And then I got this, from a member of the group called Ramsay Bell Breslin, an art writer and critic, as well as poet and photographer, who wrote from California:
So many things to admire about this photograph. I like the way you use the edges of your photograph in surprising ways. On the left, a small scene in the far distance I barely noticed at first; on the right, a scene set in the middle distance. Of the photograph as a whole, what looks at first like a simple scene that one can grasp at a glance turns out to be more complex, which makes it fascinating (for me at least) to contemplate.The romantic in me loves the waves of snow in the foreground and the feathery grasses that blow over them. The post-modernist in me admires the pole (another surprise at the edge), which throws what seems like an intentional wrench into our expectations of a quiet winter scene.
In post-modern architecture one sees annexes attached to buildings that look nothing like the buildings. Here the telephone pole seems out of place. As such, it grates on one’s desire for visual harmony and something we believe we have every right to expect of art.
But no, your photograph is anything but complacent. Life is harsh and often awkward and uncomfortable. Telephone poles loosen and tilt under winter conditions. Tolerating that visual discomfort is part of our job as viewers. To me the pole isn’t a mistake in need of editorial assistance. It does its job and does it well, whether what I see is what you intended or not.
Here is my grateful reply to Ramsay:
…would you mind if I quoted your comments in my blog? Not just because you say nice things about my photograph, but for three main reasons - one, as a lovely example of a careful, sensitive reading of a photograph - any photograph, not just mine (and beautifully written, too); two, to illustrate the point that different people can have very different opinions of a photograph, or any work of art, for that matter; and three, to make the further and related point, that there is a fine line between success and failure, in photography and any form of art or craft, a line which depends on both the photographer and the viewer, and which may be blurred and shifting, too.
Go ahead, she said. So here you are, with three sets of views before you - the views of those who would ‘improve’ my image, Ramsay’s view, and my response.
Which raises the question: what do you think?
Now take a look at the image above - without imposing a view on you, you might note the way that the road leads the eye toward the farmstead at the centre of the photograph; how the wonky telephone poles and wires frame the main subject; and how the horizon vanishes so that the farmhouse and outbuildings seem to float in space, suspended between heaven and earth.
An image, on the face of it, that is quite ordinary, of an ordinary scene, but one that (in my eyes, at least) is both commonplace and representational, while simultaneously hinting at the abstract and metaphysical.
Of course, you might disagree, and say that the image is simply ordinary and boring, and that would be fine, too. You would be neither more nor less ‘right’ than I am.
Bailieboro Portfolio
In my February blog, I posted a handful of the Bailieboro photographs. Here is a link to the full portfolio.
Mediocrity and Violence
Strange, isn’t it, how often mediocrity and violence go together. As witnesses for the prosecution, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Discovering Saul Leiter
The strangeness of the familiar, stillness in movement, silence and the eternal in the midst of change and movement - these are riddles, poems, glimpses of meaning and confusion in the world as I see it, things I value in the work of the photographers whose work I admire, qualities I hope and mostly fail to reach for in my own photography.
And now I have stumbled upon the work of Saul Leiter, the best of whose images have all of these qualities in spades, whose photographs are paintings, abstracts, and doses of a beautiful yet quotidian reality - if you are familiar with his work, you will wonder why it took me so long to discover him, and if you are not familiar, allow me to recommend him to you!
Glasgow Gallery of Photography
These two photographs have been selected for the Glasgow Gallery of Photography’s Travel exhibition.
Travel Advisory
Happily, unexpectedly, at short notice, I have taken on a short term assignment with the EU, and will be in South Africa for much of April. I return toward the end of the month, only to turn around again almost immediately, to fly down with Rob to sunny Florida (politics shall not be mentioned) for a family reunion - the first in ten years.
Which means that normal photographic and blog service will be delayed, though not suspended. Most likely you will see me in your in-boxes again in May, if not beforehand.