Monthly Image Discussion / March word

Helloo again and welcome to another ponder from the mind of NathanPhoto, which is coming with the slightly disturbing realisation that the year is going so fast and we are in March, February went so fast that as I stopped to look at the calendar I realise that we are already in the 2nd week of March.

With that whirlwind of activity, I realised I never discussed the February image at that point or introduced the March theme so I shall make amends with this blog and round up the monthly image production.

As a small reminder February’s theme was Love, there was a lot of internal debate about which image I should choose, as I discussed previously should I include one ‘of’ love or should I show an image that was made ‘with’ love?

I’ve decided that I will return to roots of my photographic beginnings and show an image that fulfills them and includes that of a newer love  

I’ve only recently been introduced to Northern Ireland but grew up knowing (well thinking I did) about the troubles and what they meant for different people, realise now that I grew up not knowing what that really looked like in relative terms for people.  

By way of description for the image I’ve chosen for the February theme of love, I’ll start with an image description from my point of view and expand that into why I’ve chosen it. The image is of a building with a textured surface and a boarded-up window, in the background there are more recent housing and grass, it appears by the curve of the pavement verticals that it is on a hill. On the wall is a faded piece of graffiti that spells out support for a paramilitary group, then someone has come along and painted on extra Stems/Crossbars/Ascenders to form the word Love. 

Here is the image:

Hopefully if I’ve got this right, as you’ll be able to check in previous writings, this image encompasses both ideas of pictures that are ‘of” and ‘with’ love

I think it works well but would love to know how you feel about it?

When thinking about how you feel about imagery, I think current practices suggest that you are in one of two camps, these are located (broadly) in two camps 

The first camp believe that images should speak for themselves and whatever your interpretation is of them is valid.

Except it isn’t, your opinion in their view is not always correct and the image maker reserves the right to correct and devalue your opinion if it doesn’t support their theories. Which suggests that there is a right/wrong way for the image to be discussed and thought of and if yours doesn’t fit then it doesn’t work. 

The second camp suggest there must be copious amounts of writing, thought, reflection and discussion and working upon an image, it must have consideration before, after and during the embodiment of the image. Beware though that if your thoughts are not sophisticated enough then possibly you may not have the grasping’s of past and current thinking and therefore a lower value will be placed upon this work. 

I believe both are right and will suggest a third way that is a mixture of the two, which basic premise goes along using the right number of words to support an image. 

What is the right number of words I hear you ask, well it depends on the image, depends on your thoughts both when and after you were taking the image, the wordcount for the artists statement, the ideas as to what is right in current climates as well, etcetera, etcetera…. 

Tricky this business of photography isn’t it…so the advice I’ll leave here for you is that: ‘you do you’ 

I’ll also need to introduce you to March’s theme, so the word we are going for to represent this month is ‘Spring’ that word again is ‘Spring’

It can be as literal, commercial, artistic, straight, abstract, pure as you want 

Thank you. 

As usual with blogs normally I speak about the image chosen but for this one as I’ve discussed so much about the image then I’ll leave it with a recent quote that speaks similarly to this theme…It’s from Stephen Shores new book called “Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography. A Memoir.”

This comes from the chapter called ‘What’s left unsaid’ in this chapter he discuss a film critic (Stanley Kauffmann) who discusses ideas surrounding film and photography, where Kauffman compares ideas of beauty between Alfred Stieglitz and Ingmar Bergman’s film wild strawberries where he concludes that Bergman’s film images are every bit as beautiful as Stieglitz’s still imagery but that film:

“had the advantage of being in a more complete medium”

Shore then goes onto to add this beautiful statement which fits with this blog, where he states that:

“… but photography’s incompleteness is not a defect; it's a feature of the medium. An aspect of photographs meaning resides in its “incompleteness.”

Finally, I’ll add and conclude with this feeling/statement/quote, which was highlighted by a very good tutor of mine, it goes along the lines of  

“If you want better pictures, read more...” 

Thank you for reading, for your time and patience.

Love.