lunedì 24 maggio 2010

Sweet memories

towards_sranano

My photographs are not just photographs.

Now that’s an amazing statement Mice!

Yes, and somewhat simplistic, I know, I know.

Let me put it this way. They are a sort of external hard disc of my mind and I can shut my eyes and summon up every painting and photograph that I have ever created.

And what is more…

Yes Yes Yes ?

If I had never created them, my life would not be as it is now.

Whoa!. Heavy stuff!

Not really no. You see, what we create, what we create beyond ourselves, enriches us.

Let me give an example.

I was at the Printer’s this morning in Tolentino printing this image, testing again the limit of Mauro’s patience (he my print expert on RAW and Nikon imaging programme) And I asked him about a course he’d just finished on master printing. Cheekily I asked him if they ever, in these classes, talked about the experience, the actuality, of taking photographs. He span around at me in his swivel chair and said ‘Look, the first thing we are always told in these classes, is that the image you take is what is of supreme importance. It starts here. And to never attempt to work on an image that isn’t good, your best’

Nice that!

So this image above, for me, is about that instance of recognition, where you feel yourself part of what you are photographing. Where duality dissolves ;where you absorb the trees as they themselves absorb the first moister from their roots as winter releases then tenderly from its grip.

And now that creation is part of me; the trees, the dampness, the mist, the sky.

And that’s what is so marvelous about the medium.

martedì 18 maggio 2010

Applaud trees and skies

Photo0026

 

Mice likes this Tuncay lady

Can’t wait to meet her. Picked up my small prints today.

And they’re rather tasty

 

sabato 15 maggio 2010

Sex, lies and name dropping

That spec image

This is a picture of an Oak tree which lives at the bottom of my garden.

It was taken with my telefonino (i.e. mobile) so it was a bit hit and miss.

What would Ansel have said, I wonder? Ansel? Oh, yes, I'm referring to Ansel Adams.

You’ve met Ansel Adams?

Yeah, yeah, a few times, he was a friend of my mate George who looked after me in California where I lived for a while.

OOH!

Yes, I mention him not because I’m name dropping but because of the story he told us about his famous

‘Moon over Sierra Nevada’ photograph, taken when he and Edward Weston and the whole West Coast States bunch were

rolling down to Arizona in a drunken haze. Fact was, he just took a deep breath in the dark and took a divine guess at the exposure.

Was as surprised as a moonbeam that it came out, let alone that it was to become an icon and milestone in the history of photography.

Divine guess, I like that, well done Mice.

Lovely guy, no pretentions, very kind and gentle.

Like Tony Snowdon.

What you’ve met him too?

Yeah, did all the backdrop design for him on a Isse Mayake shoot in London

Lovely guy, thoughtful, kind and patient.

Like Cartier Bresson and Buckminster Fuller.

Huh? WWahwa?

And in November, I met (after not having seen him for years), Oliviera Toscani, an old friend from those hippy days.

But hey! This is beginning to sound like name dropping and that just isn’t my style at all.

All I really want to say is that photographers are really nice, humble people.

Like me and Steve.

Oh, and modest too.

Steve's a bit of a name dropper though, between you and me!


Michael, 15th May 2010