092144213026197 SPring 2017
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Rachel Chappell’s Garden Inspiration
The Beauty of Being Lost in the Moment THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY
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1.866.879.9144 d.bushore@fostereprrnts.com On the Cover Unknown • Rachel Chappell
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features
Timeless Gardens ...................................................................................... 23 Interview with Rachel Chappell, flower photographer on what inspires her and how she wishes to inspire others. By Rachel Chappell and Claude Nuridsany
Moments that Define .............................................................................. 29 The beauty of being lost in the moment and how to take advantage of those moments. By Adam Crawford and Shaun La
The Art of Photography ........................................................................ 35 Going back to some of the first photographers and how their work has shaped photography into what it is today. By Adam Crawford
Behind the Shutter ................................................................................ 42 Meeting the photographer who shot all of the imagery for National Geographic. By Wallace Martin
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departmentals
Editorial Editor’s Letter ............................ 5 Interior Masthead .................... 7 Startup Tips and Tricks ......................... 10 Camera Options ................... 11 Film recommendations ...... 13 Inspiration Ansel Adams ............................ 14 Experimental Methods ...... 15 Forward after Setback ........ 17 People Subscriber Work ................... 19 Photographer Spotlight ..... 21 Aaron Shavers ........................ 52
Cliffs of Moher • Ivan Vidal Palmer
contents punctum.com • spring 2017
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EDITORIAL
we l c o m e
and thank you for picking up the premier issue of Punctum. My hope is that within the pages of each issue, you find content so valuable or meaningful that you return to it again and again. I think you may find some new favorite photographers here. Or perhaps you will see something that inspires you to go out and try something new with your camera. I want you to find timeless inspiration and a good dose of confidence to tune into and trust your instincts. The beauty of photography is the many ways it can better our lives if we only take the time to share our experiences. Punctum wants to acknowledge the photographers who take photos for the reward of creative expression or as a means to cope, conquer fears, create memories. And the great thing about photography is that it does not matter if you are 18 “The beauty of photography is or 78 the camera allows the user to share their experience with others. We here at Punctum the many different ways that know how hard it can be to steal a bit of time to it can better our lives if we grab the camera; layer in your conflicted feelings over the costs of the endeavor or the learning only take the time to share curve you face, and you’re practically immobiour experiences.” lized. But you deserve photography. Our advice? Just do it. Only the joy you feel when shooting will help assuage the guilt that’s keeping your camera in its case. And find a flock of like-minded artists to keep you engaged and supported. That’s what I hope this publication is for you: a resource that encourages you to try something new and also a guide that pushes you to see the beauty in what you are already doing.
Annie Leibovitz Editor in Chief
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STARTUP
Our Top Three 35mm Cameras Choices
Pentax K1000
The Canon AE-1 is one of the most well-known 35mm SLRs of all time and has a hugely loyal fan base - people literally swear by this camera. It was manufactured in Japan from 1976 to 1984, and in those 8 years enough were produced that you will not have a hard time getting your hands on one for a reasonable price. This camera was not designed for professionals, but instead featured straightforward and easy-to-understand controls intended for beginners or hobbyists.
The Pentax K1000 is often referred to as a “beast” or “workhorse” because of it’s insane durability. It was manufactured from 1976 to 1997, making it one of the longest produced 35mm SLR models of all time. It’s inexpensive, simple and loved by photographers worldwide. Because of its reasonable price tag and long-standing production, over 3 million Pentax K1000s units were sold over time and today you can easily find them in great condition without looking very far.
Tips & TRICKS
Canon AE-1
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READ THE MANUAL Once you have your camera, it is a good idea to read the manual; I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Even if you know the basics, you need to acquaint yourself with your camera specifications. Read through the whole thing, check out the various functions, even if you don’t find them necessary, find out what each button does and all that your camera is capable off so you can take the best use out of it. Jim Branson
Nikon FM Series The Nikon FM series includes the original Nikon FM, Nikon FM2, Nikon FM2n, Nikon FM-10, Nikon FM3a and a few special variants (like the illusive Nikon FM2n Tropical Edition, which unfortunately does not feature a palm tree print.) Starting with production of the Nikon FM in 1977, the Nikon FM10 is one of the few film cameras still currently available. You can buy a new one from Nikon right now in 2017.
RECORD SETTINGS Why? Because you WILL forget. You may think you will remember what settings or film stock you used but you will not. I learned this the hard way and spent too much developing costs being stubborn. Because you don’t have the exit data readily available like you do with your digital images, it is really fun to go back and match your images with your notes once your scans come in. Jo Clark
EXPERIMENT With film many fear that you only have a few chances so they think too much. While thinking is good, you need to just go and shoot when you start out. These won’t be amazing shots, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Have some fun and fill at least 2 rolls of film before you develop. You can then look at these, see what’s good and what’s bad, and work from there onwards. Tina Little
And at the end of the day just remember that the person behind the camera is much more important than the camera. The camera doesn’t take good photos it is the perspective of the photographer that creates interesting photographs.
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INSPIRATION
Ansel Adams Seen in a more traditional art history context, Adams was the last and defining figure in the romantic tradition of nineteenth-century American landscape painting and photography. Adams always claimed he was not “influenced,” but, consciously or unconsciously, he was firmly in the tradition of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, Carlton Watkins, and Eadweard Muybridge. And he was the direct philosophical heir of the American Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir. He grew up in a time and place where his zeitgeist was formed by the presi—Ansel Adams dency of Theodore Roosevelt and “muscular” Americanism, by the pervading sense of manifest destiny, and the notion that European civilization was being reinvented — much for the better — in the new nation and, particularly, in the new West. Adams died in Monterey, California. As John Swarkowski states in the introduction to Adams’s Classic Images (1985), “The love that Americans poured out for the work and person of Ansel Adams during his old age, and that they have continued to express with undiminished enthusiasm since his death, is an extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps even unparalleled in our country’s response to a visual artist.” Why should this be so? What generated this remarkable
response? Adams’s subject matter, the magnificent natural beauty of the West, was absolutely, unmistakably American, and his chosen instrument, the camera, was a quintessential artifact of the twentieth-century culture. He was blessed with an unusually generous, charismatic personality, and his great faith in people and human nature was amply rewarded. Adams channeled his energies in ways that served his fellow citizens, personified in his lifelong effort to preserve the American wilderness. Above all, Adams’s philosophy and optimism struck a chord in the national psyche. More than any other influential American of his epoch, Adams believed in both the possibility and the probability of humankind living in harmony and balance with its environment. It is difficult to imagine Ansel Adams occurring in a European country or culture and equally difficult to conjure an artist more completely American, either in art of personality.
“I hope that my work will encourage self expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us.”
from left to right: Jeffrey
Pine •
Ansel Adams; El Capitan • Ansel Adams
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by William Turnage
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INSPIRATION
Feeling Creative? Try developing with Coffee, Tea, Or Vitamin C The two most essential ingredients of a photographic developer are a developing agent (a reducing agent) and an activator. Caffeine, that magical component of coffee, tea, and many soft drinks, is an excellent reducer and can work well as a developing agent. Vitamin C can also do the job, as well as vanilla extract, iron supplement tablets, and a number of other common materials when properly applied. BREW A POT OF DEVELOPER Caffeine is one of the best, and it’s simple to use. Coffee or tea can be the source, but coffee may be preferable because of its higher caffeine content. So if you want to try your own skill at kitchen chemistry processing, here’s a recipe for making a half pint of developer, enough to process a roll of 35mm film in a typical developing tank. 8 oz of water 4 teaspoons of instant coffee crystals 2 teaspoons of washing soda Stir the ingredients until uniform, then develop film for 25 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds. This simple formula will develop any silver-halide emulsion, but for best results you’ll need to experiment to determine the optimum composition and development time for the particular film and exposure level you use. DEVELOPING WITH VITAMINS If you’re not into coffee all that much and want to still try another alternative process, think vitamin C. Vitamin C can nicely replace coffee as the developing agent, but because vitamin C is more acidic than caffeine, a larger quantity of activator will be required. Here’s a workable composition:
8 Hours:
THE HISTORY BEHIND THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH by the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
The first know photograph taken is View from the Window at Le Gras which is a heliographic image and the oldest surviving camera photograph. It was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and shows parts of the buildings and surrounding countryside of his estate, Le Gras, as seen from a high window. Niépce captured the scene with a camera obscura focused onto a 16.2 cm × 20.2 cm (6.4 in × 8.0 in) pewter plate thinly coated with Bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt. The bitumen hardened in the brightly lit areas, but in the dimly lit areas it remained soluble and could be washed away with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum. A very long exposure in the camera was required. Sunlight strikes the buildings on opposite sides, suggesting an exposure that lasted about eight hours, which has become the traditional estimate. A researcher who studied Niépce’s notes and recreated his processes found that the exposure must have continued for several days.
8 oz of water 8 vitamin C tablets (1000mg each) 5 teaspoons of washing soda Develop for 30 minutes, agitating every 30 seconds. Film development with either of these concoctions--the coffee brew or the vitamin C mix--is straightforward and simple. And what will you have in the end? A strip of negatives with all the requirements for producing good prints. The negatives may not have as clean and crisp an appearance as you’re accustomed to seeing, but don’t be deceived. A remarkable level of detail is there, and with a little effort you can generate prints of surprising quality. Try it and see.
View from the Window at Le Gras • Nicéphore Niépce
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PEOPLE
Subscriber Work from left to right, top to bottom:
Into darkness • Pedro GSáez; Half Dome’s Shadow • Stephen Moehle; Alone • Eduard Moldoveanu; Alley • Marek Heskro; Shroom • Ivan Raebic;
An Evening at the Lake • Boris Baldinger (Editor’s Pick)
Want to see your work featured? Send your JPEGs or PDFs to subscribers@punctum.com for a chance to have your work featured. Our summer theme has to do with water so get creative and have some fun!
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tammy ruggles : A Photographer with Perspective Tammy Ruggles is a photographer who was born with retinitis pigmentosa, and whose present 20/400 metrics is considered legally blind. We sat down with her to ask her what it was like to be a blind photographer. How would you describe your eyesight? Imagine the world looking bokeh 24/7; this is how I see. I see a blur of colors and shapes and the closer I get to something, the better I see it. I can’t make out the features of a face very well, and I see better in high contrast, which is why I prefer black and white photography to color. Why photography? How did you get into it? I fell in love with it at an early age. At age 5, I’d wear a camera around my neck all the time. As a beginning writer and artist at age 12, I’d recognized photography as an art form, and always wanted to develop my pictures like Ansel Adams, only with night blindness, I couldn’t see in the darkroom. It wasn’t until 2013 that I came back to photography and began to wonder if I could do fine-art photography after all.... images that expressed my own sense of art and beauty in the world. I was a born artist, and the art of photography is what drew me to it.
How does a legally blind person approach photography? Can you tell us about your process? My process is simple. I go outside for a walk around, snapping photos. Sometimes I’m close enough to make out what the subject is, or I move close enough to make it out. It isn’t my eyes that do the actual seeing, it’s my camera. I do very little evaluating of the scene before I click the shutter because I can’t see what’s there to evaluate. Do you feel like your diminished sight lends something to your photography? After doing this for a few years, I realized that my visual impairment actually helps define my individual style. It allows me to focus on the big picture of things, rather than the details. I don’t have to worry about setting up a shot, or how it looks. What inspires you? So very much. I’ve been a writer for fourteen years, and I was a sketcher and a finger painter for a while, but if I had to choose one art form, it would be photography, because it’s the one thing I’d thought I’d never, ever be able to do.
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Timeless Gardens Flower Photography with Rachel Chappell
I have many childhood memories of warm summer days, dripping ice lollies and lazing on the grass making daisy chains. Now, some good few years later, I can still find happiness amongst the daisies. Indeed, I can spend many hours gazing at a flower looking for the shapes, shadows, colors and textures which bring together mother nature’s work of art. This may be a sign of extreme passion and creativity or indeed an excuse to laze in the sun. Here is a small collection of the results of my flower gazing. In a busy world we are often rushing and only have time to glance at our surroundings however slowing down and taking a minute can reveal many details otherwise missed. I hope that you take some inspiration from these images and when you next have a moment take a look at a daisy and marvel at its beauty and its grace.
by Rachel Chappell and Claude Nuridsany; photographs by Rachel Chappell
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At first glance it is often the color of a flower which draws our attention. However the impact of black and white in a floral world should not be forgotten. Striking shapes and textures can be more fully described giving an increased emotional pull and timeless feel. My first “proper” picture was of a set of wrought iron gates taken as part of a 6th form general studies lesson. A somewhat random choice of aperture gave focused detail of the rusty iron while the blurred background added to, but did not dominate the image. So here we are years later having moved through darkrooms and film choices to pixels and histograms. The tools (and subject matter!) are different but the enjoyment is the same. Today my some what over grown hobby sits alongside my “proper” job and adds highlight and focus to my world. Flowers and details are my thing and through books, magazine articles and workshops I have learned to produce images which I am proud to display. Again a busy life style intercepts and these are not images of exotic plants from far flung places. All have been taken over the years in my own gardens shared with children, swings, slides and two large dogs (who it has to be said have little consideration for pretty flowers). The regular use of conservatories has allowed me to keep out the wind and the four footed helpers!
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I am a great fan of the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition which provides a superb platform for all garden photographers to showcase their work. Some stunning images are selected in the winning categories and act as an inspiration for me in my own work. All entrants are able to ask for feedback on their submissions and over the years this too has supported me to develop my own style. A romantic poet once wrote that paradise is an incomprehensible puzzle, its pieces spread out all around us. To find its lost splendor, we must reassemble those scattered fragments. If the poet spoke truly, the contemplation of f1owers can certainly help us to recover the beauty of that lost world. And designing a garden, laying out its paths, its pools, and its shades, is both an act of creation and an attempt to rediscover our lost Eden. I know no better reason to leap out of bed in the morning than the hope of discovering a newly opened flower in the garden. What has me hurrying down the stairs today is a clump of blazing Oriental poppies. Last night the buds had swelled to the size of quail’s eggs. I run down the path, my heart pounding; I must see what has happened. I am not disappointed, for I have caught it at just the right moment. The green sepals have opened to reveal four scarlet petals springing from the
calyx, curiously rumpled, like tissue paper. They present a strange paradox; twisted like flames, glowing like coals in a brazier, they are also as still as sculpture. Feeling marvelous, I pursue my tour of the garden. When I return a few hours later, the flower has opened out, smoothing its petals into a festooned bowl of welcome. Sure enough, its first visitor has already come to call a huge black bee, shimmering purple, is wallowing in the pollen-dusted stamens. The delicate bloom trembles under the visitor’s weight. Above all, it is time, or rather, tempo that differentiates us from the world of plants. Our animal pulse is impatient, hurrying our lives along to the beat of seconds, whereas plants harmonize themselves to the more leisurely round of days and nights. How can we hope to see their languorous, almost imperceptible movements if we race up to them at breakneck speed? To observe the successive changes that pass over the face of a flower as it blooms, we must visit it only now and then, spacing out our interviews. Thus, with each encounter, we discover a different season of its life. A burst of color comes into the life of plants abruptly, like a sudden attack of fever. Up until now, the plant has methodically gone about its business, producing stems and leaves- always
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similar, multiplying the patterns of its growth. Then it resolutely breaks out of that orderly progression. Having fashioned only flat structures, with green as its palette’s sole color, it now bursts into full roundness, building a new castle in the air. Moreover, it discovers color. After a youth of discretion, a maturity of folly. The result of this stylistic revolution is that most wonderful apparition, that mirage, that prodigy of grace called a flower. In a way, the flower in its bud is the vegetal equivalent of the butterfly in its chrysalis. The young bloom is enclosed in the same sort of hermetic chamber as the larva, and this sealed space is the site of all its metamorphoses. Petals when newborn are extremely vulnerable. They will, at maturity, spread across great surfaces, colored panels whose mission is to attract pollinating insects. Inside the bud, however, they are often wound in spiral form, the preordained figure that allows them to take up the least room. Tightly interlocked, they are more resistant to both shock and dehydration. Plants are economical creatures. Their metabolism goes in slow motion. But when it comes time to bloom, extravagant needs countermand their accustomed thrift: to fabricate in a few weeks those fleeting and beautiful constructions called flowers commits vegetables to enormous expenditures of energy. For many, this lovely moment is a swan song. Annuals and biennials purchase their single blossoming with their lives. For a plant, to bloom is to emerge from anonymity, to throw off its mask and finally show its true face. A flower is a signature, an ensign, a blazon. To identify a plant without seeing it in bloom is as delicate a matter as to recognize a person whose face one can’t make out. A flower is a plant’s face, its most singular feature, the expression of its personality, the symbol of its identity. A flower seems to concentrate so much of a plant’s inventive capabilities that one can lose oneself for a long time in speculation about the nature of blooming. Indeed, it was a poet who first understood the origin of the flower. In his Metamorphosis
of Plant s Goethe proposed a unified vision of plant morphology. Rejecting the reductionist method typical of science in his day-whose aim was to understand the whole by studying the part-Goethe approached the problem in a novel way, favoring a holistic understanding of the plant. A blossom appears as though an anomaly, an eccentricity in the common sense organization of plants. Goethe sought a simple general principle to explain the flower’s enigmatic origins. The key to the solution, he found, was in the leaf. “Although apparently dissimilar, the organs of a plant in the process of developing either its leaves or its blossoms stem from the same component, namely the leaf. Thus [with the blossom] nature does not form a new organ but merely recombines and modifies organs already known.” A flower, in other words, is a delicate assemblage of modified leaves concentrated at the top of the stem. Throughout the ages plants have been thought of as almost angelic creations. Far removed from the follies of animals and human beings, from dramas and passions, they symbolized the last refuge of chastity. Their placid, serene, and seemingly timeless existence gave no hint of sexuality. If plants consume themselves in bursting into bloom with the colorful and sweetsmelling structures we call flowers, it is to employ them as beacons to attract those creatures who can transport their pollen to other flowers of the same species. To the botanist, a flower is merely a sexual apparatus imbued with exhibitionism and ornamented with a thousand eye-catching advertisements: outrageously colored flounces, petals, and sepals. However, it is not our eyes that flowers seek to charm, but those of nectar-gathering insects who insure their pollination. Without them, 80 percent of the plants would disappear from the face of the earth.
“ For a plant, to bloom is to emerge from anonymity, to throw off its mask and finally show its true face.”
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In the end, what I write here cannot explain the mystery of flowers, for their magic cannot be captured in an enumeration of parts and functions. One can approach the nature of flowers only circuitously, poetically, even voluptuously, in the manner of bees. Perhaps the spectacle of flowers is so overwhelming that we want to bring it back to earth by consulting botanists. But what botanist’s vocation does not spring from the sense of wonder felt before the beauty of mystery of flowers? Scientists are both passionate and prudent. They erect around their emotions a bastion of universal rationality. Will we ever know why flowers-which, as we now know, deploy their charms to appeal to insects-have such a hold on us? The beauty of flowers does not exist to please the aesthetic sense; it requires no assent; it sets itself above judgment, with a tranquil obliviousness. To gaze at flowers is to plunge into the center of the world, and through the proliferation of forms that overwhelm us there, to discover how much we belong to the world. If our eyes light up at the sight of shells, blades of grass, or clouds, it is because the eye is made of the same fabric as they are, constructed out of the same constellations of atoms; the eye is part and parcel of the same elaborate dance of forms, and driven by the same forces of the universe. Put another way, the eye is made to wonder, just as the flower is made to bloom.
To see more of Rachel’s work visit her website rachelchappell.com
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Written by Adam Crawford and Shaun La
moments:
are the elements of life. They are linked by time and come together to define who we are. Some are big and some are so small that we barely feel them passing. Each of them holds a unique value that may be immediately apparent or take years to discover. The moment you decide to photograph is when your perception of the present moment transforms. The photographer’s eye is a moment of hyper awareness that elevates a level of observation to help you find the extraordinary in the ordinary. The act of seeking something to photograph, whether place, subject, or preconceived objective, is the practice of observing the world around you in the present moment. Most photographer’s goals are to capture synchronous elements in the present; a good exposure, sharp focus, good lighting, solid composition, contrasts, and finding the perfect second to capture all of these elements in a harmonious photograph.
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The moment you decide to photograph is when your perception of the present moment transforms. The photographer’s eye is a moment of hyper awareness that elevates a level of observation to help you find the extraordinary in the ordinary. The act of seeking something to photograph, whether place, subject, or preconceived objective, is the practice of observing the world around you in the present moment. Most photographer’s goals are to capture synchronous elements in the present; a good exposure, sharp
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focus, good lighting, solid composition, contrasts, and finding the perfect second to capture all of these elements in a harmonious photograph. Photography, to me, is the metaphorical act of seek and destroy, but maybe a better analogy for this is warranted to help explain the photographer’s eye. The experience of photographing is a subjective thing for every one, but is there some sort of common experience we have when we photograph? What I mean by seek and destroy is that I go out to shoot with a purpose, and that is to find something that makes me stop, absorb,
and capture something which feels like the perfect moment to capture. It is a feeling of place and time fading away, where a brief moment of uncertainty and joy emerges from the time when I pack my gear to when I press the shutter. Photography is a different way of seeing the world when most of the we are more preoccupied with our every day life. For example, on a road trip the miles and miles of road blend together, or your time working is a blur because you’d rather be spending your time doing something else. Photography is a time out from the blur of our day to day lives. It allows us to step back from these heavy thoughts and burdens to allow us to exist in a moment that is temporarily free from concern. The act of photographing is stopping down time in order to pay more attention to the world than yourself. Photography can be an escapism which brings out an indescribable experience, that photographers often have a hard time putting into words. We speak by showing what we create, instead of explaining our purpose and feeling. It is a form of expression and experience that brings joy into a sometimes chaotic, burdensome, or humdrum existence that a lot of us would like to escape occasionally. Photography is a small vacation from the overpowering thoughts
of the mind, and a form of meditation that helps put things in our lives back into balance. The photographer’s eye, eyeball, eyelid, cornea, and pupil all play a part in how the photographer observes the world around. The photographer’s eye is the art of observation like Erwitt said. Art enriches the life of the viewer by showing them your point of view, and aesthetic artistry. Life would be a very dull place without paintings, sculptures, photographs, great literary works, beautiful architecture, etc. It would deprive the world of an essential elements of beauty and enjoyment that the world has enjoyed for thousands of years. Some people make a living from their photography and can become jaded by the experience of working for difficult clients and not knowing where their next paycheck is coming from, some may do it as a form of escapism from life, some may do it because it’s a fun hobby that makes them happy, and some may do it because it is their artistic outlet. Photography is different things for different people, but there is something that happens when we challenge our photographer eye to observe the world around us in the present moment: This is what I call uncertainty. Why does this particular moment make sense?
What am I seeing in this composition? Why did I choose this location and time? Is there a purpose to all this? What is photography? What’s the point of photography? Am I really an artist? Am I any good? Is this photograph shit? These questions run through my mind and often make me reconsider my intentions, but what is amazing is that I can shut this off temporarily to surrender to the moment and just take the damn picture. Photographers are trying their best to photograph what they think will move somebody, but when it comes down to it, many photographers have no idea what they are capturing at that moment until later in the digital darkroom. The act of photographing is the uncertain act of getting a good exposure and finding something that speaks and relates to our proclivities as humans. In this way, the darkroom is our canvas to translate these moments into an artistic vision. We outline our images with light like a painter sketches before he applies paint. That is the moment of inspiration is when the photographer’s eye is focused to see the compositions potential, or like how the painter constructs the bare bones of a painting with a pencil. The photographer’s eye helps us write with light, and gives us a purposeful break from our
previous spread:
Family of Swans Swim Across Misty
Foggy Autumn Fall Lake at Sunrise • Matt Gibson; Above: High and Dry • Paul Sikorski
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daily lives in order to just let us ‘be’. The beauty of being lost in the moment is one of the most moving experiences I’ve had as a photographer, and it has taught me to look at the world literally in a different light. It’s amazing what photography can do for the photographer. No, the moment is not controlled by the photographer in any sense. And it is a location that can be viewed, even if it is an old location where the buildings were deconstructed—the foundation of the ground is a physical existence. A photograph is finished once that moment is captured by pressing the shutter. Of course, the moment is not only conceptual. It is actually boundless. Every photograph has various degrees of the moment within it. Henri Cartier-Bresson (Decisive Moment), believed in being instinctively ready to see the moment. For Ansel Adams (Visualization), it was all about
calculating the possibility of seeing the photograph within your mind, & giving strict attention to how you would print the photograph, because the print is were the merits stood out as evidence for good or great photography. Garry Winogrand paced with speed that life was passing by & that if you freeze it with the camera, when you took time to study your photographs, you would unfreeze new discoveries (the need to keep photographing without over-thinking). Neither of these photographers were right or wrong. What they all hold is a commonality that expressed a theory that made them function. All of these theories are related because it expresses the tangible fullness in the moment. Photography is an addiction that makes the photographer accept the right now, & not solely on an instant gratification level either, but on a lasting power level. If photographers could make the moment, they
previous spread: Loughrigg Tarn left to right:
• Peter Henery;
Grand Canyon, Arizona, United
States • Gable Dennis; Eiffel Tower, Paris 1989 • Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
would be right up there with musicians who can produce a musical note, or the painter taking the brush & letting some mental activity go into their painting piece. No, the moment is not controlled by the photographer in any sense. Nobody knows the path to a good or great photograph. What the photographer does is set their Eye on the sight, measuring time, light; thus fulfilling the most basic & powerful duty that they have as a visual artist. There is a subjectivity that every photograph owns, no matter the outcome of what society or a single onlooker may see. This is why
photography takes on the objectivity of an iconic photograph, this is why photography is argued to the edge about its artistic merits. Photography has a consequence that alleviates both the subjective & the objective; especially, when it come down to the times of today that carry trendiness that comes along with the instant gratification in digital cameras & mobile phones being an accommodation that modern society uses to present their visual grip on how they see things. Other artists outside of photography have protested or shoved to the side, the artistic contributions of photography because of this erratic imbalance of
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“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt 44 punctum
Unknown • Alfred Stieglitz
not being devoted enough to choose an artistic foundational movement (subjective or objective). There basis is that anyone can point the camera, hit the shutter button & see what is already seen by the naked eye. From Peter Henry Emerson, Oscar Rejlander to Henry Peach Robinson, all the way to the group of photographers who championed art in the Linked Ring when photography within its first 100 years, the bracket of it being inviting to an artistic philosophy was there in the early stages. Alfred Stieglitz was a forerunner for photography being an art in the early part of the 20th Century & of course Group F/64 would come with their steam in the 1930’s, hoping to let the art world know about this photography is an artistic medium. Even though the debates within these various photographers & organizations met disagreements on passionate levels, they were all in one pool of agreement & this was that photography had the depth to be an Art. The water in photography is the moment, it shapes & frees itself into traveling wherever the visual messages, questions, answers, mysteries, easiness, & complexities, naturally wishes to flow. Photography is from the moment, because art wants to be in photography.
House in Iceland • Ben Cowden
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Galleries: Photography as Art by Nancy Locke and Adam Crawford
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It was photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Eugene Atget that ushered in photography as a viable art form at the beginning of the 20th century, and what came after was an amazing collective of photographers who shaped today’s photography landscape. The true art of photography was brewing as the next generations of photographers started entering into the fold. We saw the rise of star photographers such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Robert Capa, Dorothea Lange, William Eggleston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, all which had a similar philosophy when making their photographs — Composition then capture. What separates an artist from a laymen is how they use their respective mediums — whether a painter, photographer, or writer — to create a composition. The artist places elements in a particular scene together to capture a meaningful, significant, or emotional collection of shapes, people/wildlife, and lighting that are a combination of symmetry and subject. Master photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Adams, Weston, Stieglitz, Lange, etc., were all pioneers in there respective fields of photography because they treated their work like art and more than just recording history’s posterity. They used their photographs to tell the story of a place and time, show the harmony of composing subjects in a symmetrical way, and to freeze moments of beauty, pain, or whatever they desired. Much like a painting, a photograph has the ability to move, engage and inspire viewers. It could be a black-and-white Ansel Adams landscape of a snow-capped mountain reflected in
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a lake, with a sharpness and tonal range that bring out the natural beauty of its subject. Or it could Edward Weston’s close-up photograph of a bell pepper, an image possessing a sensuous abstraction that both surprises and intrigues. Or a Robert Doisneau photograph of a man and woman kissing near the Paris city hall in 1950, a picture that has come to symbolize romance, postwar Paris and spontaneous displays of affection. No one would question that photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Robert Capa, Dorothea Lange, William Eggleston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson are works of art. Art historians can explain the technical and artistic decisions that elevate photographs by the masters, whether it’s Weston’s use of a tiny aperture, Adams’ printing techniques or Doisneau’s distinctive aesthetic. It’s clear that Pepper No. 30 belongs in a museum. Oddly enough, it was not always this way. Photography has not yet celebrated its 200th birthday, yet in the medium’s first century of existence, there was a great deal of debate over its artistic merit. For decades, even those who appreciated the qualities of a photograph were not entirely sure whether photography was – or could be – an art. In its first incarnation, photography seemed to be more of a scientific tool than a form of artistic expression. Many of the earliest photographers didn’t even call themselves artists: they were scientists and engineers – chemists, astronomers, botanists and inventors. While the new form attracted individuals with a background in painting or drawing, even early practitioners like Louis Daguerre or Nadar could be seen more as entrepreneurial inventors than as traditional artists. Before Daguerre invented the daguerreotype (an early form of photography on a
left to right, top to bottom: Clear
Night Sky,Tosa,
Kochi, Shikoku Japan • Michael Kenna; Not Resisting • Charles Thomas; Tree Trunk • Wynn Bullock
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silver-coated plate), he had invented the diorama, a form of entertainment that used scene painting and lighting to create moving theatrical illusions of monuments and landscapes. Before Nadar began to create photographic portraits of Parisian celebrities like Sarah Bernhardt, he’d worked as a caricaturist. (An aeronaut, he also built the largest gas balloon ever created.) One reason early photographs were not considered works of art because, quite simply, they didn’t look like art: no other form possessed the level of detail that they rendered. When the American inventor Samuel F B Morse saw the daguerreotype shortly after its first public demonstration in Paris in 1839, he wrote, “The exquisite minuteness of the delineation cannot be conceived. No painting or engraving ever approached it.” A photograph of a haystack, with its thousands of stalks, looked visually staggering to a painter who contemplated drawing each one so precisely. The textures of shells and the roughness of a wall of brick or stone suddenly appeared vividly in photographs of the 1840s and 1850s. For this reason, it’s no surprise that some of the earliest applications of photography came in archaeology and botany. The medium seemed well suited to document specimens that were complex and minutely detailed, like plants, or archaeological finds that needed to be studied by faraway specialists, such as a tablet of hieroglyphics.
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Finally, the genesis of a painting, drawing or sculpture was a human hand, guided by a human eye and mind. Photographers, by contrast, had managed to fix an image on a metal, paper, or glass support, but the image itself was formed by light, and because it seemed to come from a machine – not from a human hand – viewers doubted its artistic merit. Even the word “photograph” means “light writing.” Pictoralists sought to manipulate photographic negatives to make the images appear painting-like. Debate over photography’s status as art reached its apogee with the Pictorialist movement at the end of the 19th century. Pictorialist photographers manipulated the negative by hand (much like compositing in Photoshop today); they used multiple negatives and masking to create a single print; they applied soft focus and new forms of toning to create blurry and painterly effects; and they rejected the mechanical look of the standard photograph. Essentially, they sought to push the boundaries of the form to make photographs appear as “painting-like” as possible – perhaps as a way to have them taken seriously as art. Pictorialist photographers found success in gallery exhibitions and high-end publications. By the early 20th century, however, a photographer like Alfred Stieglitz, who had started out as a Pictorialist, was pioneering the “straight” photograph: the printing of a negative from edge to edge with no cropping or manipulation. Stieglitz also experimented with purely abstract photographs of clouds. Modernist and documentary photographers began to accept the medium’s inherent precision instead of trying to make images that looked like paintings.
Although things in photography now seem to be more ephemeral and less frozen in time, photography is still a medium with an important place today — especially in our digital age. The modern photography landscape on the surface appears to be like a droll white noise with an endless cycle of new cameras and ‘must-have gear,’ but if you wade through it one can find artful masters still around us; names like Sam Abell, Annie Leibovitz, and Sebastião Salgado. But there’s also a new crop of photographers brewing, waiting, learning, and making mistakes I’m sure. Young students of the craft will change the landscape of photography like their predecessors, and will create master works that will inspire others to become photographers, and that will grasp photography as an art form. The point is, the art of photography cannot be contained or restrained, and in a free society, a cycle is the way of life. Life beats on no matter what. Someone will always carry the torch and transcend boundaries and the commonplace to make photographs that will bring out emotion, make the hair on the back of our necks stand, making something that moves the viewer.
Grass Against Sea • Edward Weston
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PEOPLE
Freeze Time:
What Photography Means to Aaron Shavers
Aaron Shaver is an 18-year-old amateur photographer who is a first year art major at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been taking photos for almost four years. Most of his photographs are taken in the Pendleton County area of West Virginia. He specialize in landscape and wildlife photography but has recently started doing portraiture as well. We asked Aaron what photography meant to him and this was his response. Nature is what helped me develop my talent. It has changed the way I see everyday things. By taking advantage of what surrounds us I capture the moments that do not last long, the moments that are extraordinary.To me photography is the best way to freeze time, to have a scene to fall back on. Through composition and light, I present to you my perspective and outlook on nature.
Photography to me is almost a way of communication visually between the photographer and the viewer. It is a way to share my experiences and show what I see in the world when I step outside. Photography to me is also an escape. Being in love with nature, this is how I view it. There is no better escape than being in the woods on a foggy morning, alone, with only my camera to capture
how it felt and looked at that moment. I believe photography is the most powerful of all art forms, because it evokes emotion and perception. Photography is also a way to create a memory or something to fall back on. I find it amazing that with one click of the shutter you can freeze a scene to have forever. For example, when the morning sun creates corpuscular rays in the mist, this is a
special light that only lasts for so long. Though it is a common occurrence, by taking just one photograph, it can last forever. However, in order to capture something amazing that does not last long, you need to be at the right place at the right time. Therefore, photography is also a challenge. When waiting for wildlife patience is key, as is timing. Photography is a way to challenge myself and test my limits mentally and physically. How long can I wait? How good can I do? Will I be successful? Sometimes I am and other times I am not. Photography is my passion because of nature. It is my passion because I can show others what I see in the world, Aaron says. Burn with Me • Aaron Shavers “I really love nature. And that plays a big part of why I do what I do. The way the sun filters through the trees and how quiet and still the path was in the early morning all contributes to my love of getting up early to go shoot. “
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