July 14, 2008
I’ve decided I’m going to increase the resolution of all the photos I show here:
© Ben Anderson
The photo above is from a small collection of 6×7 images pulled together from the test shots I’m making for a future large format project. You can see more here -> Nameless
So, I’ll be undertaking an overhaul of the portfolio section of the site, drastially editing the parkour section, and perhaps even rolling the traceurs section in with it. Feel free to drop edit suggestions for the parkour stuff either as commentary on this post, or directly on my flickr parkour sets.
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Okay. I’ve been mulling the ‘nameless’ set over since you posted it on Flickr and wondering how to best comment on the images. Since I’m now on a train and have finished pondering all the recent Conscientious posts my mind turned back to your set so I revisited.
My first - and continued - response is not positive. But I’ll preface that with a context - I know you, I know virtually every location in the images, I know something of your intentions and I know which blogs you read and sites you visit to a greater or lesser extent. And, to look at the series of images it smacks of ‘my first art photography’. It’s hugely cliched stuff - it’s almost checklist of “what should art photography look like”, from the “oooh! I wonder where that leads/what’s around the corner” images (check) to “why is that road blocked??” (check), to “Who put that TV/Washing Machine/(insert household implement here) in that largely out of context environment” (double check) to “why was that particular construction/civil engineering project abandoned?” to metaphorical representations (’choices’). Most of the locations are within half a mile of each other - and crucially - I know that they’re within half a mile of the building you work in. That’s why I carefully prefaced this, as anybody viewing the images without that ‘inside’ knowledge wouldn’t have the same preconceptions. The photography is technically proficient, but the subject matter hackneyed, cliched and cold. It feels like you thought of a uniting theme after shooting the images rather than vice versa. There’s no depth other than a very thin artistic veneer and none of the passion or subtle humour that made your photography to date so endearing.
Now you’ll hate me, tell me I’m wrong and never speak to me again. Maybe this set just isn’t for me - but the M62 project held far more validity. For a start, it seemed to stem from a genuine interest and hadn’t (AFAIK) been done to death already.
Comment by Jay Mawson — July 15, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
Actually I agree with you to a large extent. These photos serve a number of purposes…
* Improving compositionally.
* Getting out and actually shooting.
* Getting more proficient with the Mamiya 7.
* Attempting to find some points of interest that are accessible.
* Helping to build a knowledge map of what I want to revisit on large format.
* Pulling together something coherent, and I think that if you look at these images in terms of ‘a journey’ they do work somewhat - there’s no depth or gravity to them however.
* I’ve spoken with others about the rolls I’ve been shooting lately as being a proof of concept really, and to those ends they have served really rather well - in that I know what I _don’t_ want to shoot. You’re quite correct about the theme, it is after the fact, pulling 8 (I think) images from 120 because I think they ARE united in the fact that they ARE cold, and perhaps most importantly are the exact opposite of what I set out to do ie a POC for M62. That’s where the name came from really, these could be taken anywhere.
* Killing some time
I don’t hate you. I agree, but without actually getting out there and doing something I think I’m going to get nowhere even faster.
Comment by BennehBoy — July 15, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
Now that’s service - not many blogs have such a quick response rate
Good response, and I think I’d actually pre-empted that something along those lines would be your response. At any rate, good to see you shooting something again.
Comment by Jay Mawson — July 15, 2008 @ 5:25 pm