Posts tagged ‘Fuji 160s’
The Destination of Photography
Santa Barbara, CA; Fuji 160s
“The destination of photography is to reveal what something or somebody looked like, under a particular set of conditions, at a particular moment in time, and to transmit the result to others.”
Bill Jay, On Being a Photographer
I have been reading a publication called Lenswork for about four years. It is a high-quality bi-monthly periodical centered on black & white photography, mainly but not exclusively digital. The editor, Brooks Jensen, has a Podcast and seems like a very articulate, well-educated photographer/publisher. I enjoy the issues quite a bit, and have listened to 90% of the podcasts over the years. Before passing away, Bill Jay was a columnist, and a wonderful one, within that magazine. Loved his insights into photography.
Venice Beach, California. Pulled Tri-X.
As you have noticed, of late I have been quoting Susan Sontag from her series of essays, ‘On Photography.’ I have been reading with great interest your responses to the quotes, but have not been responding to your thoughts. The lack of response is intentional, and my choice to quote from Sontag is also intentional. Other writers on these questions and issues will be quoted in the future, as with Bill Jay today.
Enjoy
Pierdras Blancas: Sea Lion Beach
Fuji 160s, processed in Nik Silver Efex
During my drive up the California Coast in January, I stopped at a beach where sea lions spend their days basking in the sun. It turns out I arrived there at exactly the right time of year, in the middle of breeding season. The beach is called Pierdras Blancas, and below I’m going to quote from their web page because their descriptive text is just a wonderful accompaniment to my images.
Ektar
“The number of elephant seal pups born at Piedras Blancas in 2001 was about 1950. The total population of a rookery is difficult to estimate because all members are never present at the same time. Researchers multiply the number of pups born times 3.5-4.5 to get an approximation. The total population for Piedras Blancas at the turn of the 21st century was estimated to be around 8000.
Ektar
The elephant seal breeding season begins at Año Nuevo in December, when the first males arrive. From fourteen to sixteen feet long and weighing up to 2 1/2 tons, these huge bulls engage in violent battles to establish dominance. The successful bulls do much of the breeding, with most of the duty falling on the “alpha” bull at the top of the social ladder.
Fuji 160s
In late December, the females begin to arrive and form “harems” on the beaches of the Reserve. Much smaller than the males, they average ten to twelve feet in length and weigh 1,200 to 2,000 pounds.
Fuji 160s
Three to six days after she arrives, the female gives birth to the pup that was conceived the previous year. Normally only one pup is born to each female, and she nurses for 25 to 28 days.
Fuji 160s
Ordinarily, a mother nurses her own pup, although if they are separated another female may adopt the youngster. Feeding on its mother’s rich milk (55% fat), the pup grows from approximately 75 pounds at birth to 250-350 pounds in less than a month. Some resourceful pups nurse from two or three females. They can weigh 600 pounds and are aptly called “super weaners”.”
Fuji 160s
I had two film cameras hanging around my neck that day; my FTb and my EOS 3.
Fuji 160s
My goodness, but being there was a wonderful experience for me. Very sacred place, and I was very happy that California was protecting places like this.
The one thing that these images cannot capture is the sound of the beach. Just an amazing constant roar and bellows of the sea lions talking about whatever was on their mind.
Photography not only gives me joy in the act of creation, iy also brings me to places I might not have seen had I not wanted to ‘get the shot.’
This was one of those places.
Look at This: Photography is art, right?
Fuji 160s (converted to b&w in Lightroom) FTb, 24mm FD
I am a subscriber to Lenswork. This is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the fine art of b&w photography. The images it publishes are mainly digital in origin, and for the most part, astoundingly lovely.
The latest issue arrived yesterday. I usually read the issues in bed before I go to sleep. In this issue (#94), the publisher, Brooks Jensen, writes an article in which he examines the nature of photography, and whether, after practicing the ‘art form’ for many years, it is indeed an art form at all.
His basic argument is that ‘fine art’ must have an artifact (book, piece of sculpture, painting) as the goal, and while photography indeed has prints, that prints matter less and less in a digital age.
Then he examines whether a book of photographs could be that artifact, and then rejects that premise becuase of the linear, structured nature of the way we consume books.
And he rejects ‘performance art’ because, well, almost never does the photographer perform their images.
Instead, what he discusses at length is that, for him, photography’s greatest strength and its greatest challenge is to capture reality at 1/125th of a second and say, ‘Look at This.” And that it is incumbent upon the photographer to choose a POV and a subject that makes that ‘looking’ worth while.
This summary of the essay which I have written above does not do justice to the thinking of Mr. Jensen. However, this essay clarified for me something that had long frustrated me but I could never put into words. That when a photographer ‘constructs’ their subject to a great extent (“I’m going to take this bearskin rug and paint it dayglo orange and then take whip cream and smear it all over the rug and then lay the rug over the outstretched arm of this member of the Black Panther Party”) I rarely find that kind of thing as interesting as a well seen photograph of almost anything ‘real,’ mundane though it may be.
Those kinds of images may be ‘art’ and may be ‘artfully composed’ but they don’t qualify as photography to me, they are more like painting. To me.
There is certainly a line here and I cannot quantify where that line might be. The line between constructed and not constructed, I mean.
But Mr. Jensen’s thoughts about this, about photography’s strengths as he sees them, really helped me clarify my own thinking.
So, take a look at this tree and those clouds and that gent (who was, incidentally, taking a picture of the sailboats in the bay).
Color Returns
Fuji 160s, Canon FTb, 24mm FD
Just got back six rolls of color film developed and scanned by North Coast. Over the next few days I’ll post some of the images from that body of work. Most of the images were from the trip up the California Coast last January but there’s a roll from work I shot in the fall of last year and one roll from Paris. The Paris roll was damaged before I sent it out, however, as it went through the laundry and clothes dryer. I had it processed anyway, but my hopes for minimal damage were dashed a bit when the scanner tech enclosed a note with the rolls saying “did roll xxx38 get wet?”
Uh, yeah, it did. Upon very brief inspection, a few images might have escaped without wholly being lost beyond rescue, but I have yet to look at them very closely. I fear for the worst, however.
