Do subjects get "used up" in photography?

[Sanford]

and...all the good books have been written and all the good movies have been made

[jtk]

"...not all folk are entrepreneurs, or , are particularly clever...does that make them inferior to others? or, some sort of sub-human class of a human being."

 

Allen, relax. Nobody but you came anywhere near that idea.

[jtk]

"Perhaps the conscious shaking hands with the subconscious..."

 

Allen, yes. Photography certainly can help that along sometimes.

 

Your exceptionally fine photo does (old lady, excited young ladies with legs and ring , young mother with responsibility).

[Allen Herbert]

Allen, relax. Nobody but you came anywhere near that idea.

 

I did not say they did, John. I just like to add a bit of Theatre, entertaining;)

[jim_horton]

Have all the subjects for songs been used up? How many songs about love, betrayal, and lost love are out there? They will continue forever just as will photos of sunsets, babies, etc.

--Jim

[see_r]

"... there's joy in repetition"

 

I have decided that this is the single most valuable response in this entire forum...and wonderfully concise. Jim Horton gets a very close second, with an important reference to music.

 

The answer to the OP, therefore, is a resounding, "no".

[Sanford]

I forgot all about music. Of course all the good music has been written long ago. This is especially true of blues and blue grass which are based on two or three basic sounds.

[Allen Herbert]

Something ephemeral in some photography

 

A while back, on the Leica forum, someone posted a photo of a pipe. How exciting, a photo of a pipe! But it it had a ephemeral quality to it, which i could not put into words. I thought it was just me, but several other, respected photographers, had the same take.

 

How does it go "truth is stranger than fiction".

[Norma Desmond]

Allen--

 

How does "truth" play a role in the "ephemeral" nature of photography?

[Allen Herbert]

I'm not really sure where you are going with that question, Fred.

 

I suppose in that transient moment the mind finds its own truth from the stimulus received. How you would define that truth I don't know, unless we take a walk into the world of Metaphysics or such like.....

[jtk]

Allen, you're on a roll here.

 

Perhaps "truth" is simply a sensation. It doesn't seem to be a concept.

[Norma Desmond]

Allen/John--

 

Allen, I was inquiring why you seemed to be equating "ephemeral" with "truth," because I thought it was an interesting direction and wanted to hear more.

 

John said that photography is fundamentally instants. Important. Natural. Inclusion of the caveat that it is fundamentally NOT emotion detracts from the insightfulness of the observation.

 

I was quick, myself, at first, to disagree about photography and instant. I thought about the prep, the greater meaning, the story, etc. But what gives photography so much of its life is that, undeniably, it captures and is dependent on the instant (then there is more, too).

 

That's why movement, when expressed photographically, is so special. That's what allows good storytelling in a single image to have such impact. It's the instant and the transcendence of the instant that is key. Phylo raised paradox in another thread. John highlighted its relevance.

 

The Western mind tends to think of truth as unflinching, as steadfast, solid, eternal, a correspondence between thought and reality. The notion that it can be sought in the ephemeral would be a welcome radical shift in our thinking. It would allow for context, perspective, and relativism to be given their due.

 

When many speak of "truth" in photography they are considering some sort of adherence to the real-world experience by the resultant image. Many seem bent upon assuming that truth in photography is about accurate representation. Truth as static. On the other hand, the kind of truth that may be found in fleeting instants, captured in glances and glints, in momentary passages of shadows, in the quick darting of an eye, the sudden ironic juxtaposition of two elements, is the kind of truth that has meaning and, as John suggests, FEELS like something.

 

It was the empiricist David Hume who said that belief is a thought with a stronger feeling behind it. Take it a step further. There is also something we consider stronger in the idea of truth than in the idea of belief. John, "sensation" is a good start. I'd add "sensation" with some kind of consensus behind it. A common feeling.

 

I think the kind of truth we experience when looking at or creating a good photograph is akin to a sensation which connects us in some way. It may be when we realize not just that I am having this feeling but that some kind of we is having this feeling that we become aware we are experiencing truth.

[Julie H]

<p>My <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/6847611" >green pepper.</a></p>

 

<p>-Julie</p>

[chris_waller]

There is an infinite number of possible photographs. That we fail to avail ourselves of some of those possible photographs suggests complacency. That said, it is enormously difficult to find a new aspect on the frequently photographed.

[david j.lee]

one of the firsts pictures i fell in love with was Weston's nautilus. i once bought myself one

of those shells and photographed as a homage. the picture came out rather nice and is

hanged on a wall in my home. right now, i am trying to locate the exact same palm tree

Weston photographed here in the city where i live, and i want to make another one from the

same angle.

[stuart_weibel]

It is certainly a great challenge photographing one of the great images of the world... the Eifle Tower, or the Taj Mahal. Give 100 good photographers the challenge, though, and you'll always come up with some fresh perspectives.

[jdrose]

Would it be right to walk away and ignore a subject just because someone else has taken a photograph before you?

[sven_felsby]

Subjects never get "used up". We grow blase. Compare: do kisses get used up? Getting tired of walking in the mountainside at sunrise? I doubt it. What it takes to avoid "used-up-ness" is a truly childlish (i.e. unspoiled) attitude to subjects.

[case_van_velzen1]

I don't think there is any subject "used up" in photograpy. Any person is different, any animal, flower. Any subject can be viewed from a different angle or vantagepoint. Every sunset or sunrise ( my speciallity) is different. Anyone with a camera in his or her hand is a potential photographer, and shows us his or her view, and thanks to digital camera's, people make more and more pictures then ever, and thanks to sites like Flickr or this one for that matter, we all are able to see them, good or bad. Any person who takes a picture is proud of it's result, good or bad. So I don't think there is any subject "used up".

[hjoseph7]

"With 2 billion images on Flickr, with more people making and more people looking, will fresh subject matter become ever harder to find? Where does this lead?"

 

In a way, you got a point. There is a limited amount of subjects we can shoot down here on earth, unless we decide to build a spaceship an visit other planets. It's not the subject that is the problem, but the way we shoot them. I try to avoid the cookie-cutter, 'cliche' look myself, but sometimes it's inevitable such as when shooting portraits. Think of a photo as a song, most of them say the same thing, but then you got your top 50 hits, why is that ?

[antoniobassiphotography]

Julie,

 

I think subjects get used up by people with not enough abilities to "look at the world and

life". Today I was talking about photography with a friend of mine that told me she

decided to give up taking pictures. She realized that the very same scene photographed by

her and by other people with more "eye" just turned out to give very different results. I

believe that, reality is the same for everybody, doesn't change by itself in a short period of

time, but it's the way we look at it that can create different worlds. Cartier-Bresson said

that taking photographs is like learning to understand life. If one is inspired by the

photography of a certain artist and does not take that inspiration as an opportunity to

understand and learn but only tries to imitate his style and subjects, of course the results

will be poor copies of the originals. However, if we learn from the experience of the past

in order to better understand and develop our talent and sensitivity we will be able to

create something unique from a scene that has been photographed a thousand times.

 

Also, I believe that photography should be totally spontaneous and unexpected. It should

be our ability to see something that makes us feel the whole world in the split of a second

and be able and ready to capture it. For this reason I don't believe in huge equipment,

telephoto lens, organized trips with the idea of what you are going to capture already in

your head before you leave your house. We cannot see the future and what's awaiting for

us. I like to be surprised by life and it's a great challenge for me to be ready and able to

see and feel something amazing when that happens before my eyes.

 

I don't want to sound full of myself but there is a picture of mine that I am so proud of

because I haven't seen anything similar to it yet, nor something that can recreate for me

the same visual effect I get from mine. The subject is nothing new, just a shadow, and it

was taken with a point and shoot camera at 5 mpx while I was rushing to keep up with my

wife and a friend walking in front of me. I had no Idea I was about to take one of my best

shots ever but I am proud to have seen it and captured it. God knows how many incredible

simple little moments I have lost because I had no camera or I wasn't ready and quick to

capture them!

 

Best regards<div></div>

[Allen Herbert]

I haven't seen anything similar to it yet, nor something that can recreate for me the same visual effect I get from mine

 

I feel the same about this photo. Ha, you are a photo man...the courage to post your photos.<div></div>

[Julie H]

Antonio,

 

I think almost everybody has agreed that one can always find new ways to see and shoot a commonly photographed subject.

 

The other half of the equation, however, is whether you want to look at other people's pictures of very commonly photographed subjects. You've already seen it done a million times. Do you want to see it again? With a cherry on top?

 

 

-Julie

[antoniobassiphotography]

Julie,

 

it all depends on what we are talking about. If we are looking at pictures of seascapes at

sunset just pure and simple they can be quite boring, even if we add the silhouette of a

girl walking on the beach for example (very typical image we have seen a thousand

times...). But if we add some interesting object and we catch a special light at the right

time the boring and already-done-a-million-times scene can become new and magical.

The following image is taken from my "experimental" period after I switched to a DSLR

from a P&S. Here you can see how there is absolutely nothing really interesting that can

grab your attention, besides the birds and the beautiful light. This is one of those images

that I don't look at anymore but I had to take it to understand how I was supposed to

approach that light with my new camera and those lens. Following this message I posted

another one with a sunset image attached that, in my opinion, talks about a whole

different world. It's still a sunset but there are elements that make it interesting. Check it

out and feel free to let me know your honest opinion.<div></div>

[antoniobassiphotography]

Down below I have attached the favorite sunset image from my collection. I called it

"Never-Never Land". Many people have mistaken it with a moon shot and that already is

an element of interest. I hate to comment my own pictures but I really want to express this

concept. I didn't take this shot to catch another beautiful sunset but to create the idea of

seeing Peter Pan's Island from above. That low cloud turned out perfect to give the wrong

sense of space and distances. I used a tungsten filter to get the blue and add an idea of

cartoon-like atmosphere or something like that. Now, I didn't plan all this but as soon as I

saw that little rock the idea of a little island popped up in my mind and that's how the

whole image was born.