How I love photography.
It is the one form of art… where one split second… or a single moment…. can be caught exactly as it was in time.
A person. A landscape. A building. An animal. A bowl of oatmeal.
We all know…. a painting or drawing….. can take a long,long time. And while some are incredibly realistic, they don’t ‘record’ that instant… instantaneously.
And film. Film is motion. On going. Yes lots of moments. But no stillness. No singleness. Music can be seen, yes. But it records moments differently… audibly with the ability to prompt a visual response.
Photography, and the premise of its vision …. well…. it gives me the shivers. Like a lemon tart gives me the shivers.
Today, I judged a photography contest. I am not sure I am well-suited to be a judge. I have no robe. And no gavel.
But seriously…. with photo-judging…. there is the whole technical aspect of it… which weighs heavily. But there is also the aesthetic part, the story-telling part, and then.. the OTHER thing.
The OTHER thing that happens when you see certain images…. and you say… “Holy Smacker-oly. That is an AMAZING photograph.” It moves beyond just being a two-dimensional representation of something. It becomes compelling.
So. Today was hard. All sorts of photographs, from artists of all ages. And each one of them sees through that viewfinder differently.
But as hard as it was today… it reminded me just how diverse, and resonant, and inspiring this art form can be. And that’s what I like.
Now… the floral competition… which took place in the same building… at the same time… was an entirely different matter. You can bet your Aster on it.
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”
Diane Arbus
“Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” – Imogen Cunningham
“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” – Alfred Stieglitz
“There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept.” -Ansel Adams