photo_secessionist's photostream  

"He will die telling God that if he could live a few years longer he might be the photographer he wanted to be." - Carl Sandburg (about Edward Steichen)

I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist

Photo Secessionist, or Photo Regressionist? It's hard for me to say. I am a great admirer of the Photo Secession movement - the greats like Steichen, Stieglitz and Weston. They were attempting to esablish photography as an art form in it's own right - seperate, alike, from the constraints of painting and the harsh realism of then-current photography. Reality was a big part of their advocacy of photography - but a reality that revealed something beyond the merely pictorial. I'm trying to go back to their influences, using their medium (film) and their tools - vintage cameras from the 1920's, 30's & 40's.

I learned to shoot on my father's 1950's Agfa Karat and I'm still in love with film. I shoot digital and film - it's all in choosing the right tool, isn't it? But I've been told I'm very "process oriented" (it was NOT meant as a compliment) and I'm afraid I must plead guilty. It's the process of film that attracts me - the "journey" - and it still enthralls me after all these years. Hopefully, every now and again, process and result will merge into an interesting image.

I use very little post-processing. I believe my images ought to tell a story with as little interference as possible. And, for me, there is always a story. I find photography the ultimate story-telling medium... without using words. Each photo can and ought to stand alone; each viewer can, and should, find his own story there - a story which may be completely different from what I see. Enjoy (I hope) and interpret for yourself - make your own stories. Stories without words... it's a great concept!

"The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth." - Edward Steichen


ArtLibre member






Cameras that I use regularly:

Zeiss Ikon Contax III 35mm r/f (Zeiss f1.5 5cm Sonnar)
Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 (Kodak Ektar f4.7 135mm)
Rolleiflex Standard 6x6 TLR K2 Model 622 (Zeiss f3.5 7.5cm Tessar)
Arsenal Salyut-S medium format SLR (Vega 12-B f2.8 90mm)
Pentax ME Super 35mm SLR (Soligor f3.5-4.5 28-80mm Zoom Macro)
Mamiya ZE 35mm (Mamiya-sekor f2 50mm E-series lens)


MY WORK HAS VALUE!
Photographers' Rights Group.


Some thoughts on photography from photographers I admire :

"No photographer is as good as the simplest camera."- Edward Steichen

"The good photographer not only sees - he looks; and in the process of looking, insight is developed to the point where the object looks back at the photographer - and together they make the photo." - Edward Steichen

Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." - Edward Weston

"Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product." - Edward Steichen

"Photography is a very subtle thing. You must let the camera take you by the hand, as it were, and lead you into your subject." - Margaret Bourke-White

"The pictures are there, and you just take them." - Robert Capa

"On ne photographie que soi-même." ("We only photograph ourself.") - Michel Tournier

"Lady I take pictures, I don't interpret reality!"- Arthur Fellig ("Weegee')

"I never photographed a subject more than one or two exposures, then I'd go on to something else. I don't admire photographers who use motors." - Peter Stackpole

"I just always shied away from putting myself in a position of having to get that moment. I'd be around on the back side shooting something else or something." - Michael Mauney (on newspaper photography)

"I'd rather stalk with a camera than a gun." - Toni Frissell

"Whenever I get discouraged I remember how much money Van Gogh made from his painting." - Anon.

"After it is scanned, it is all digital, isn't it?" - Karine Burkel

"Amateurs worry about equipment,
professionals worry about money,
masters worry about light,
I just make pictures... " - Vernon Trent

"For an artist there are NO good habits." - Edward Steichen




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