Postcards from the Creative Journey

A Plethora of Prodigies

Melvin and Susie

From the "Fifty Project"

Are prodigies more plentiful these days or have our standards for what constitutes a prodigy been lowered? I could consider the possibility that the number of people younger than I am is definitely getting larger by the day, but I chose to ignore that for the moment. Age does not seem to be as much an issue to me as maturity.

Shouldn’t you attain a certain level of maturity before your art goes beyond being attached to the refrigerator with a magnet? So much of photography today relies on computer skills and a certain facility with those skills can come soon after one starts. So does the ability to churn out computer generated art. The mismatch I see is that the craft comes quickly while the maturity to create meaningful art comes in its own time. Sometimes the gap between art and craft doesn’t seem to stop the overconfident from sharing their creations with the rest of the world.

Boundaries and Restrictions

Frank Reid's Shop

From the "Fifty Project"

Large Format Fine Art Photographers make photographs of traditional subjects with traditional films, developers and paper. I spent thirty years under a dark cloth with a view camera so you can trust me on this. Very few Large Format Fine Art Photographers deviate from this formula simply because of the limitations of the hardware and film. And that is just fine. The challenge of Large Format Photography is to make art fresh and original when faced with restrictions imposed by the process of large format analog photography.

I loved the challenge imposed by the world of large format photography. Getting your story told with the various constraints imposed by the equipment and film required a considerable amount of creativity. Photographers are not alone by being limited to specific restrictions. There are many other forms of artistic expression that require adherence to a specific restrictive artistic formula. Consider the haiku. Seventeen syllables to convey a thought. There is a vast reservoir of bad haiku. But great haiku is a joy. Poetry, in its many forms has restrictions with rhyme and length. Musical arts also have specific structure as evidenced by such musical forms as fugues, minuets, or an eight bar blues.

All of these forms have restrictions and I do not view them as an infringement, but as structure and foundation required to build a great piece of art.

Hardware or Software?

At Cherie's Beach House

From the "Fifty Project"

Like most folks I do not have an unlimited budget for my photographic endeavors. I have some money available to invest in photographic paraphernalia. So what do I do? Purchase that really sweet Panasonic 7-14 mm zoom lens for my GH2, go whole hog and purchase Adobe Creative Suite 5, or upgrade to Lightroom 4 when it is released? Decisions, decisions,decisions.

It’s in cases like this that I envy the photographic professional. For them, the answer is simply, “will this purchase allow me to create sales?” Or, “how will this purchase pay for itself?” When you have a source of photographic income to offset photographic expenses, the answer is, “If it helps me sell something, I will buy it.” For the person such as me, possessing that unfortunate combination of amateur level income and professional equipment outgo, the choice is less obvious.

“Back in the good old days” the choices were simple. You could buy gear to make photographs with or you could buy supplies such as film, paper and chemicals. Now the choices are gear, software and supplies (now known as ink and paper). Hovering over these choices is the ominous specter of compatibility. The hardware, the software and that unspoken master of all, the computer must be aligned perfectly at the proper level of operating system, software, firmware, drivers and various updates. If these components are not perfectly aligned, nothing really works well together. I found that out this summer when Photoshop CS4 refused to read the RAW files from my GH2. Purchases of individual components must be balanced with how they affect the rest of your photographic environment.

For years, my photographic world revolved around view cameras and platinum printing. I thought that was an expensive endeavor. Then I took up the digital version of photography. That’s when photography really got expensive.

Post Script – I wrote this entry about three weeks ago. Yesterday, I jumped on the Lightroom 4 bandwagon. The upgrade was under $100, so I said what the heck, let’s upgrade and be done with it. I downloaded the file from Adobe and was excited to get in on the “next big thing.” Well, at least until I hit the first dialog box. “Lightroom 4 must have Windows Vista or later to be installed.” Just as I mused in the preceding paragraphs; the computer planets must be aligned perfectly or all is lost. The first domino has fallen. Lord knows how many more will fall and how expensive it will be. Sigh.

So turns the hamster wheel of progress.

The Future Aesthetic

Officer's Row

From the "Fifty Project"

Who decided that HDR’d, over sharpened and super saturated colors is the aesthetic for contemporary photography? I attended a recent presentation by a professional photographer and was presented with many such examples of “photographic art.” Some other curmudgeon (Bless his heart) asked the above question while I sat there stunned from the visual assault. Apparently, some photographic associations are rewarding this type of aesthetic in their competitions. Novice photographers are getting the idea this type of “look” is good photography. It is an under-reliance on skill in the field and an over-reliance on post processing to carry the day.

I lament the end of the photographic world as I know it. I also lamented (and survived) the demise of fiber paper, prime lenses and manual focus. I am concerned the end might be much closer than I think it is. In my old fogeyness, I expect photographs to have a certain look that reflects a photographic aesthetic. Silly me. The teachers from that school of photography are almost all gone. The new teachers of photography do not come from the ranks of film photographers, but from the ranks of the software manipulators.

Those that teach photography in the digital age are creating an aesthetic evolving at the same rapid pace as the technology that creates the pictures. There is little time to go through the refinements of the process because we are barreling headlong on our way to the next software release. There seems to be a concentration on utilizing the latest features just because they are there and not necessarily because they help make a better looking photograph. My big fear is that the folks that decide “what makes a good photograph” no longer will be able to recognize a good photograph and substitute a judgment rendered on the most creative use of photoshop.

I am a bewildered observer. For the most part I am happy in knowing the trends will come and go quickly. I am fearful that the future will be no better. When photographic teachers emerge from the field of software manipulation I have reason to be wary.