Friday 17 February 2012

Nothing but the truth

So I have been thinking about 'truth' on and off a lot recently thanks to a comment John Umney made on here a while back...I'm sure it wasn't intended to provoke such extended thought, all the same it has...what to make of the importance and meaning of 'truth'. Not the ethical type of truth referred to in social documentary photography. I'm thinking about the notion of what we consider to be our truth...and how everybody's truth is 'a' truth, necessarily different yet equally valid. It intrigues me. And when I think about photos I have taken in the past and indeed tried to read of others, you are learning as much about the photographer as you are from what you see in the image they have taken. Is that realisation not a tad scary? Oh, you knew all along...I'm catching up slowly!!

If you consider this thought then with landscape photography I wonder if the same applies. The landscape is a shared canvas and in some ways harder to express your own truth on to it or of it. As essentially when the focus is the landscape, we are the transient ones...the landscape has been and will be here comparatively forever...it changes of course...but can you imagine being the landscape and viewing us...we're here for a mere blink of an eye...the land must have seen so much...what authority do we have? 

So to define your own brand of truth I think can be challenging within the landscape photography genre...and then on the OCA Forum recently, I saw this referral to Ori Gersht work. It was Ori Gersht's recent work about the holocaust that for me showed how a landscape can be used as a reference point to a narrative derived from a social documentary perspective...the humanistic aspect of the land. It is quite a challenge to achieve I think!!

Coming at it from the other end, Heidi Lender's recent project, which has nothing to do with landscapes at all, struck a chord with me. Her conceptual self portraits 'give a humorous nod to women who can do it all'. Despite my own ideas being less developed or accomplished, my thought processes and personal motivations are not too far removed from hers with regards a mechanism of self expression. So how can this be applied to a landscape, is it relevant or useful to take this approach...or is flippant and meaningless? Particularly when the history of the landscape genre is steeped in objectivity, a quality so revered, at your peril are you to ignore it...I have made two attempts at my own subjective view of the landscape, but I will have to wait to see if the execution has been successful as it's all on film anyway. 

Going back to the idea of truth, here is another experimental series looking at the landscape, with the eye or sensibility of a street photographer, albeit a rural slant (this has been discussed at length in previous blog posts). I don't consider these the real deal by any means, for one there is an absence of people - but you know my history with street photography...strangely I still feel compelled to keep trying. 

So to conclude with truth, I have some way to go on this still as you can tell, but as a final comment, what truths can you determine about this photographer who focusses her gaze on a cow's arse? Case closed your honour!!!









9 comments:

  1. You've managed to give a grittier feel to landscape here I think. Certainly fits with a street photography viewpoint.

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  2. Hmmm, not totally convinced by any of it at the moment, but thanks anyway.

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  3. Would that be the case for the defence or the prosecution? 1,3 & 5 work well for me, I'm a bit of a sucker for the self directed narrative of the sort that 3&5 provide; but all three give provide a truth that doesn't spell "Lakes", is that what you are after? To de-couple the romance from the stone?

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  4. I'm not sure I can answer your question yet...I'm trying different approaches at the moment with the aim I guess of trying to decouple the two...or at least asserting my own view whatever that is. But as is so often the case it is only after you've made a stab at it can you see if its been effective...and I'm not sure I have, so I will just have to keep going. The street photography genre a la 'rural' is still something I'm weak at...but think it is something that if done well could work well...again the video Catherine spotted on Duckrabbit by Ravi Ira (http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2012/02/storytelling-ravi-ira-and-philip/) I think can advise me on this front.

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  5. Hello Penny, saw this and thought of you. Reminds me a little of Hockney's multiple camera shots http://driftingcamera.blogspot.com/p/woodland.html

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  6. Hi John, thanks for the link. Yes, this would fulfil the landscapes assignment very well. I've returned to it a few times now and what I have seen on line of Hockney's stuff. The vivid colour and expression of Hockney's work exudes optimism, hope and humour. The difficulty I have with this series I just don't find them interesting enough to maintain my gaze for any length of time. I've tried, I've read the artist statement, looked at his other work (grafitti is great) but I don't have the patience. Perhaps if they were big in a gallery I could, but aesthetically they feel too familiar and I can't engage with them sufficiently - same with the 'brighter later'...I'm just not quite there with it. I guess the case against the typical 'sunset' image - better to be there than see it in a photograph applies here too...

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  7. Hello Penny, saw these and thought of you - actually not the morbidity of the Braham, rather the resonance and echoes of the place within the landscape - http://www.philipbraham.com/suicidenotes.htm. And http://www.justinpartyka.com/. Both have real beauty I think; and they both have lots of other work to view.

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  8. John, really great finds, thank you so much....really interested in Braham's work in particular...totally 'get' his motivation and approach. I will have a deeper delve and post back soon.

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  9. Penny, this might interest you, a quite original (in my limited view) of landscape. The site is a bit "clunky" though. http://www.massimobersani.it/gallerie.html

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