On 7/10/07, Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I suppose it depends on your point of view. I prefer Ansel because I > see people every day but rarely glimpse, Denali, for example :) > I expect most landscape (and abstract and still-life, etc, etc.) > aficionados feel roughly the same way but there's no doubting the > "people photo" enthusiasts are in the majority. (Of course Michael > Jackson outsells Mozart, so what does the "majority" know?) > > My favorite photos aren't about content at all: Light, shadow, shape, > form is what I look for. Possibly my all-time favorite photos are > Edward Weston's peppers. > > Interestingly, my favorite HCB photos are the ones in which the human > form is a small part of the image, like "Mario's Bike", of "deleteme" > fame (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrerabelo/70458366) > > One thing I strongly dislike is photographs that don't stand on their > own; that require backstory, explanation or other "metadata": > Information beyond what's shown in the frame. I found quite a bit of > that at the Pulitzer Prize exhibit (though not as much as I expected, > given that it *is* news photography). >
I certainly wasn't trying to say that a preference for landscape over reportage is either right or wrong - it's a personal preference and nothing more. I certainly understand the attraction, both from the taker's and the viewer's POV of a beautiful landscape photo. The photographer must have incredible patience, endurance (to hike - with gear - to some pretty isolated areas), experience and a great eye for light and other conditions in order to get "the shot" - and even after all that, maybe there'll be no "shot" to be had! Like reportage, timing is everything. Miss "the light" or whatever, and "the shot" is gone, never to re-appear again. That's where a great people shot and a great landscape are similar - the best are about capturing a moment that will never re-appear again. They are about freezing time that can never be re-captured. So I think we're not far apart in our photographic preferences - we just approach them from a different angle is all. I agree with you about two things: I prefer a photo that can be appreciated without knowing "the story" or any other background info. That was the beauty of HCB: his great shots were art in and of themselves, context was not required to see the "art" in them. And, Wesson's peppers are among the greatest photos ever taken! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
