I am a writer and express myself in words, always words (millions of words… I thanked Nicola last night for being patient with me while I processed something, and she laughed and said, Darling, if I couldn’t cope with processing we would have split up nineteen years ago). But when it comes to events in the real world, I often like them better expressed in pictures. There’s something about photographs — their power to capture a real person in a real moment (or a not-so-real moment), the sense of being there — that I find compelling.
If I want to learn about an experience, deepen my understanding of it, I’ll go read about it. But often what I want is to know how it felt. The best photographs dissolve the barriers of space and time and bring me straight into the moment, the immediate there-and-then. Novels and stories put me into the moments too, of course, but they are a process. Probably why I do them (grin). Words take me into myself: photos take me bang! straight into other places.
I grew up with LIFE magazine. In my day, LIFE and National Geographic were the pinnacles of photographic journalism — information and story crystallized into a single arresting image, or series of images. Humans, the world, stillness and motion, life and death, the majestic and the ridiculous — moments of real life that will never come again, but we can see them. In pictures.
I’m still puzzling through my response to photos. I must say that mostly, other people’s vacation pictures and endless wedding photos don’t really do much for me. My wedding photos feel special to me, in part because they were taken by our friend Mark, also a writer, someone who knows how to tell stories in pictures and in words. But even so, I don’t expect them to be special to other people (grin). Mostly, I find my own life as captured in photos less compelling than the real thing. But good photographers record the story, not just the image, and there are some stories of my life that I wish very much I could have such a clear, true record of. That would take me back bang! to the there-and-then. Just for a visit. Just for a moment.
I think yours was the last generation that actually got to see Life. Now there are only Special Issues. My favorite combination of powerful words with riveting photographs is still Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans. And photographs certainly fueled the protest against the Vietnam War, the last war where photographers had free acsess. I see I am waxing political, so let me just say that I am also moved by photographs of unique architecture, nature, and humans.
PS: In all other respects regarding photography I defer to Jennifer D, nature photographer par excellence.
I don’t understand why Life magazIne couldn’t stay in print; it was so awesome. And as for NG, I am one of the many, many photographers who has at some point in their process dreamed of working for them.
And, well, I supposed I’m often still puzzling through my response to photos as well.
Nothing much from me, Barbara, but thank you for the mention. 🙂
My admiration for Life magazine knew no bounds when I was youhg. I was astonished by the work of W.Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke White, Walker Evans and many others. I even went to art school for two years, to study photography. Reality set in and I acknowledged that I did not have the talent or drive to be a photojournalist. I still have fond memories of Life and miss it, immensely. I saw that it was launched as a website and I am sure it is wonderful but the power and beauty of the magazine can never be equaled for me.
Back when…
I had once claimed that my life’s goal was to be a National Geo photographer. I worked at my craft and got pretty damn good. So why didn’t I achieve it?
(Chuckles wryly)
Well, just like with writing, you have to submit something before they can accept you. I just never got around to doing that part. I actually still amazed that I got around to submitting stories.
Ah, well.
It seems to me that when I look at pictures with me in it, I already “know” the story. When I look at pictures, especially those non-event type, I don’t know the story and my imagination kicks in. “I wonder what it would be like to stand right there . . .” pointing at that beautiful spot on the mountainside. Etc . . .
There is a lot of talk on photoblogs these days re: the LIfe website. They are letting people use the photos for free on ‘personal’ websites. Photographers who shot some of those images are not so happy. They have copyrights to them, so we will see how it plays out. Personally, my feeling is that it is not a good thing for photographers in the long term. Just another step in devaluing the work. I think this is another in a series of missteps by Getty that is hurting the whole stock industry. The continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
A link from PDN.
When I first glanced at this site I looked at a few things, and I thought hmm, these don’t seem up to the quality of the Life photos I remember. Now I realize that most of them are not from Life. They are from Getty. I did read that they are still adding images from the Life archives, and won’t be finished until the end of the year. And I found a couple of things that have a notation, “Life Classic.” Those must be the real images – they looked more like it.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the real thrust of your post, and is not to take away from your main point about photography, but I felt compelled to point this out.