johnastovall
Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
Photography, once a noble art, has become, thanks to the move to digital, a mental illness, says Nigel Farndale.
Article here....
Article here....
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Why live your life through a view-finder?
- Thread starter johnastovall
- Start date
stephengilbert
Active member
This means that people obsessing about the S2, M9, Hy6, etc., have a defense.
R
Ranger 9
Guest
Maybe this belongs next to the "optical perversion" sub-thread on the Four Thirds forum...
Terry
New member
Please explain?
R
Ranger 9
Guest
I just posted a snarky comment to his article, noting that someone undoubtedly had written exactly the same thing after the introduction of the original Kodak camera in 1888!
However, there's something in the notion that "life lived through a viewfinder" is somewhat limiting. One of the few things I found valuable in Susan Sontag's bloviated tome On Photography was the observation that photographers "regard the world as a collection of potential photographs." I decided to try to break myself of this habit, and to this day make a practice of going places without a camera specifically so I'll have to concentrate on what's there, rather than on what pictures I might make out of it.
Of course, as serious photographers (who, to be fair, were not the droids Farndale was looking for) we all know that the practice of photography can heighten our appreciation of a scene, rather than distracting us from it. But you can't take advantage of that heightened appreciation until you're fully aware of its possibilities, and the camera does sometimes get in the way of that awareness if you start deploying it too soon...
However, there's something in the notion that "life lived through a viewfinder" is somewhat limiting. One of the few things I found valuable in Susan Sontag's bloviated tome On Photography was the observation that photographers "regard the world as a collection of potential photographs." I decided to try to break myself of this habit, and to this day make a practice of going places without a camera specifically so I'll have to concentrate on what's there, rather than on what pictures I might make out of it.
Of course, as serious photographers (who, to be fair, were not the droids Farndale was looking for) we all know that the practice of photography can heighten our appreciation of a scene, rather than distracting us from it. But you can't take advantage of that heightened appreciation until you're fully aware of its possibilities, and the camera does sometimes get in the way of that awareness if you start deploying it too soon...
R
Ranger 9
Guest
Well, we had one guy saying we were perverts, and now we have another one saying we're mentally ill... might as well get them all in the same place!
Maybe there should be a "Photography Stinks" forum -- seriously, don't we all feel that way sometimes?
TRSmith
Subscriber Member
I am now beginning to believe that most of the value offered by editorials like the one linked here is to provide a spring board for comments from readers. When the articles offer the option to comment, the posted comments are almost always as entertaining as the article itself. And the reactions are, regardless of the topic, incredibly diverse.
I think I've always known that everyone thinks differently and I've been pretty happy to let that knowledge remain certain, if unproven. Unfortunately, I now have too much evidence on a regular basis. I think I might read newspapers exclusively (before they all go out of business) since there's at least a day of letting something roll around in my own head before I am subjected to everyone else's opinion.
I think I've always known that everyone thinks differently and I've been pretty happy to let that knowledge remain certain, if unproven. Unfortunately, I now have too much evidence on a regular basis. I think I might read newspapers exclusively (before they all go out of business) since there's at least a day of letting something roll around in my own head before I am subjected to everyone else's opinion.
Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Quote from the article
Nowadays? Well, I took my children to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the O2 not long ago and, despite being asked not to, the audience used their cameras constantly, flash, flash, flash, all through it. I don't think they even knew they were doing it. And I remember going to the Taj Mahal and watching people arrive. Instead of gasping in awe, their first instinct was to reach for their cameras – indeed, they seemed agitated until the beauty and grandeur of the place had been captured and reduced, until they had their proof that they were there. After that, they seemed to lose interest.
Pretty simple here we don't apply. My bet there is not one member that shoots anything like this. Mt belief if you are seriously interested in photography like 99.99 percent of this forum is than we all take a much different approach to shooting. We are looking for a image not recording one
Nowadays? Well, I took my children to see Walking with Dinosaurs at the O2 not long ago and, despite being asked not to, the audience used their cameras constantly, flash, flash, flash, all through it. I don't think they even knew they were doing it. And I remember going to the Taj Mahal and watching people arrive. Instead of gasping in awe, their first instinct was to reach for their cameras – indeed, they seemed agitated until the beauty and grandeur of the place had been captured and reduced, until they had their proof that they were there. After that, they seemed to lose interest.
Pretty simple here we don't apply. My bet there is not one member that shoots anything like this. Mt belief if you are seriously interested in photography like 99.99 percent of this forum is than we all take a much different approach to shooting. We are looking for a image not recording one