Dandelions Close-up

Dandelions Close-up
Dandelions In Black And White

Sunday, May 17, 2015

May 17, 2015


Ralph Gibson wrote, "The content of many photographs is often centred around an event. To make 'event' photographs the photographer must align himself in place and time with the event.  One minute late for the execution and his shot is missed, as it were.  I'm not interested in recording great moments in history.  For me, the great event is when my awareness has risen to the point of perception, a brief but intense moment.  At such times one could photograph almost anything... a corner, or a chair, a detail of something normally insignificant, etc.. I crave this feeling because of its greater clarity.  One day it occurred to me that it was no longer a question of how to photograph but rather of what to photograph".  Ralph Gibson wrote this in the early seventies.

The words of Ralph Gibson have become universally true. We now live our lives through social media. What to photograph now means indiscriminate shots of every little detail of our personal life.  It is, as if we have become personalities in our own little life movie.  Our snap shot mantra is, these have to be shown to prove that I am living and enjoying my time on earth.  These mundane images validate our existence to others.  We need this attention from the social media sites because we have become fragmented in knowing who we are and what we want to become.  It is easier to take pictures of your life because it gets sticky to examine yourself and find out what really matters to you.

Life's journey is no longer a deep exploration of our inner world along with our relationship with the outer world.  The outer world it seems is where the attention now is focused. It has become a distraction from asking hard questions concerning our life. Better to photograph anything, than to think and focus on anything for over a few second.

Our fascination with decontextualizing the world, taking objects, ourselves included, out of context, to be seen by eager eyes on social media sites only enhances the obsession with the now.  Since we are wanting our personality to be seen, we are imitating each other, as if we were stars and all eyes were looking up at us.

When you are connected with your subject and exploring the opportunity to compose an image with purpose then you are creating and making a personal statement. These images will show your personality in an honest and unique way.  

Remember that when you are creating images it is not only you coming through in the final image but the subject as well.  If it was only you, then we would be back to creating more of the over saturation of me photographs.












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