Just Saying (11/28/2011)
Photographs are the products of machines and techniques. Images are the products of creative minds. I no longer have much interest in photographs.
Category: Just Saying
Guy Tal Books
© Guy Tal Photography Journal 2012. All rights reserved.
I truly enjoy looking at my photographs from past years. They’re not art but they remind me of the details of great, and sometimes not so great, times of my life. It’s very relaxing to randomly pick some year and browse the archives. Sometimes I even open an old shoe box and look at the few Instamatic 25 b&w photographs I have from my youth, their often context-less survival still opens damp musty parlours in my brain. Art is a fine experience, but photographs have their humble place too.
What interests me most about photographs is how some are able to make both shine – the image AND the photograph … together. You instantly recognize the creative image making, and then you start to understand (or marvel at) the use of the photograph in creating the image. Those who are able to utilize the unique features of the photographic process to create wonderful images are the true masters, if you ask me.
If I ever lose interest in my quest to create images as photographs, I will start painting or something.
But, I relate to the simplicity of what you’re saying.
Hey Guy
But images, in order to be viewed by an audience, must also be “the products of machines and techniques”.
Cheers
Carl
I had a contractor at work ask me to stop arguing about the fire code – ‘”it’s only semantics!” he said.
Only semantics… How else can intelligent persons express a concept? Or define the law?
I find that when I’m speaking about what would be considered art or a fine art image – I use the term “image”; when speaking of the actions or products of a camera in general then “photograph” is the term.
Just sayin’
Hey Jesse, just noticed your post on here. It took me a long time to finally “get” Ansels Adams images, but once I did it really opened my eyes and I think its one of the reasons I admire your own work so much. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mention using the unique characteristic of the camera as a asset instead of a hindrance. Wish I would of learned this sooner than later but I guess thats part of the development process.