Troll: Have Leica will be HCB.

Jorge, thank you for the vocabularly opportunity today. It's rare when I have to look up a word used in one of these discussions, and discover the word isn't in my dictionary. I had to hunt it down on the Internet.

 

Now, my question is whether you consider that you take or make photographs. Takers of photographs wander the world capturing images they encounter which strike their perception for whatever reason. Makers of photographs construct the image piece by piece to create the whole message which they wish to transmit to a recipient. I suspect this is more akin to the artist who puts on paper or canvas the inner vision he or she wishes to communicate. I expect this requires more exercise of imagination than taking a photograph does. I'm a taker. Perhaps you might wish to make a few photos to see if you find more satisfaction there?

Jorge, just in order to broaden the horizon within this most interesting discussion try to get hold of a copy of "Tonio Kröger" by Thomas Mann. In short, it deals with the struggle of a young "Bürger auf Irrwegen", a de-toured bourgeois, half way in between longing for a life as an artist on one hand - and participating in "den Wonnen der Gewöhnlichkeit", the pleasures of normality, on the other. It has been a revelation and a mirror to me ever since I came across it. <p>On a more direct note, I'd like to ask a couple of questions to you and the contributors so far. What is a "successful" photo? How do you measure success? What is the "sense" of photographing? Is there such? What's the difference between photographing, singing or telling a story? Isn't it all about exploring and/or expressing ourselfs, communicating? And if so, aren't there countless levels of - and purposes for - doing so? If you want to make a living from it, that's one story. And if you want to become famous, that's another. But if you just enjoy singing under the shower you don't need to compare yourself neither with Caruso nor with Mick Jagger. At least I don't. ;-)

Martin Shakeshaft, great documentary work in your coverage of the Miners strike in the time of the Thatcher Govt, and your followup of the people involved, twenty years later.

 

I was fortunate to attend a week long David Hurn workshop when he was out here in New Zealand in 1996. He's very practical minded, with advice such as setting a finite time to finish a project before you start, and methods to measure your progress. He did have some HBC and Elliot Erwitt proof sheets with him as well as some his own from the Magnum Archives, to demonstrate their editing procedures. He's also a great raconteur as well

*** Well, if Vincent Van Gogh, Conan Doyle, Shelley, Coleridge, Kerouac, Iggy Pop, Hendrix, Dylan, John Lennon, Miles Davis, Jackson Pollock, Chuck D, et Al, made better art when loaded, why not try it? ***

 

Because Hendrix and Joplin's productivity seems to have fallen off precipitously since about 1970?

I read a biography of Gene Smith a few years ago and it described how he used benzadrine and scotch for marathon sessions in the darkroom. The author Jim Hughes said that he had never seen another photographer with so many prints and his loft was just overloaded with prints and required a truck to carry them away. JohnMac.

"Hendrix and Joplin's productivity seems to have fallen off precipitously since

about 1970?"<p>

Jimi and Janis are dead, man? Never saw that one coming.

Jorge, just a few late thoughts after looking through your portfolios--

 

Much of your work seems like compostional exercises, trying to get the various elements of the photograph to cohere in a pleasing way. But few of them suggest any real narrative content, to tell stories, or to work as a series.

 

The "Bullfight 1968," though, seems the closest to a series. But in the end, the posted shots all just seem taken from your seat in the grandstand. How much more interesting would the series be--and much more would you have enjoyed the exercise--if you had, say, taken some portraits of the bullfighter in his home with his family, met him in the bar with the companeros, photographed him with his mentor, snapped some shots in the minutes before he entered the ring, etc. The life and times of the bullfighter would be your subject, and you would have to work a little differently than if you were just concerned about framing. You would be outside your comfort zone and challenged in a new way.

 

You won't shoot aria as opposed to pop ballad unless you ratchet up the level of ambition and difficulty--this is true of any endeavor, not just photography.

 

You seem to enjoy the end product of photography and the techniques of creating it in the dark room, but have you really challenged yourself with the process of photographing--meeting new people, seeking out interesting subjects, working in difficult environments, editing a long project down to its essentials, etc. You may fall in love yet.

David,

 

>> the word isn't in my dictionary. I had to hunt it down on the Internet.<<

 

Which word? usually I try to avoid "Sunday" wording but as English is not my native language sometimes I tend to use words with roots in Latin that are similar to a Spanish vocable. Sincere apologies... :-)

 

>>Now, my question is whether you consider that you take or make photographs<<

 

Both, I think. The matter is not that I don't get satisfaction with the results. Without being pretentious, I think my photography is a bit above average. What prompted this soul searching is the realization that I hold little if any interest in most of my subject matter.

 

>>Perhaps you might wish to make a few photos to see if you find more satisfaction there?<<

 

Go the ARAT (Another Rock Another Tree) way?

 

Lutz,

 

Thanks for the Thomas Mann reference. I haven't read anything from him since The Magic Mountain. I'll try to get the book.

 

Please note that I'm not trying to be successful but to find subject matter to which I might be more interested about.

Preston,

 

You are most right in your observations. I think I need to undertake a project (or two or three). There's one --a very difficult one BTW, because of the subject matter- to which I do have a genuine interest. It's a home for the elderly. I'll try to get a layout going and see if it's feasible.

Great start--but do think about some things that are more dynamic in terms of space (and lighting) and people (the good folks of the home will likely be fairly sedentary). No sense in holding back. Try something big.

>> No sense in holding back. Try something big. <<

 

Preston, any ideas?

Josh,

 

Sorry for not addressing your message earlier; read it while at work and I got interrupted while I was about to reply. Forgot I didn't get aroud to do it.

 

>> Maybe find something you do have a passion for, and take the camera to it and try to show exactly what it is you see in it. <<

 

Tried to. I'm an avid diver but when I tried my hand at underwater photography most of it came out as the cookie cutter images of pretty corals you see ad-nauseam in the dive magazines. Dumped the activity for several years and I'm glad I did it because my topside photography and vision improved a lot.

 

Recently I've done some B&W underwater photos that have pleased me but unfortunately I'm not getting to dive as often as I'd like.