The library here has an ongoing book sale. They always have a table or two of books you can buy for cheap. I struck gold yesterday and picked up these ones from the ‘Time Library of Photography’. Classic books on photography. A nice addition to my library. And the little money that they cost goes back to my absolute favourite public institution.
“The camera must be able to make a quantity of photographs which no photographer can ever hope to take. A well-programmed camera can never be wholly seen through by any photographer, nor by all photographers together. It is, in the largest sense, a black box. It is precisely the blackness of the box that challenges the photographer. It is true that he loses himself within it, but he can dominate it nonetheless. He knows how to feed the box (he knows its input), and how to make it spout photographs (he knows its output). The camera does what the photographer wants it to do, although the photographer does not know what goes on in the interior of the black box.”
- Vilem Flusser from ‘Towards a Philosophy of Photography‘
I think that this recent series of tulip leaves has stemmed out of my reading of the Daybooks of Edward Weston. Reading his views about the importance of form and seeing that carried out in his nature photographs has really made me focus more on moving past photographing the object to trying to see the underlying form. I think some of my compositions have become a bit more complex because of this.
I’m currently reading an essay by Vilem Flusser entitled ‘Towards a Philosophy of Photography‘. It’s very interesting. I’m enjoying the critical look at photography and the meaning of photographs. He makes some pretty sweeping statements about history that I’m not sure that I entirely agree with but his discussion of the function of the photographer is spot on.
Yesterday was about as lamb-like as the start to March can be but we’re getting a taste of the lion today. It’s a good afternoon for me to cuddle up with Geoff Dyer’s ‘The Ongoing Moment.’ It’s an interesting take on the history of photography by a non-photographer. He discusses common visual themes that various great photographers have explored in their work. I’m not too far into it yet so maybe a more articulate review will come once I’ve finished.
Even through the complexity of shooting a picture of ivy with a digital camera through an old Kodak camera and diffused by a blue plastic cutting board, I wanted to try to compose to isolate and abstract the repeating curves. Even though Edward Weston would not like this shot, I’ve been really trying to focus on emphasizing form in my recent shots because of Weston’s thoughts and work. On a side note, someone tore out about 6 pages of reproductions from the copy of ‘The Daybooks of Edward Weston’ that I borrowed from the library. I hate it when people do that. I really don’t mind penciled in footnotes, especially when they’re good footnotes. But tearing pages out just can’t be tolerated.
I’m currently reading ‘Photography Speaks‘. It’s a quick overview of 150 of the important photographers since photography’s birth. Each entry has a short bio, one representative shot, and a selection from something that the photographer wrote on the subject of photography. Even though it sounds really encyclopedic, it’s a really interesting read. I find it interesting how many of the issues are the same today as when photography first began. I’m just coming to some of the early abstract photographers. That’s what this image pays homage to today. Fun stuff.