An interesting Q&A session with Martin Parr

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He seems like an interesting guy, with a good sense of humor or maybe I just relate to him because we are both British and almost exact contemporaries (I’m about 20 days older than him).

Martin Parr has the enviable job of traveling the world with a camera. He has been commissioned by brands and publishers to create country-specific series. Everywhere he goes he sniffs for “the extraordinary within the ordinary.” It may be a regular man on a beach outing, but who has the American flag for swimming trucks. A cigarette tucked behind an ear can just as easily catch his attention.

“If you have a camera you can justify your presence everywhere,” Parr tells his listeners via video chat. His tone is not matter-of-factly but humorous. He points out that “the quality of our connection” with strangers, objects and places determines the quality of the picture. This requires a reciprocal relationship with subjects. Parr himself sends out prints to people who mail after seeing themselves in one of his books.

A useful tip from Parr: In most countries photographers are free to shoot in public places, except France. Always carry around release forms if you plan to publish photographs of the French in newspapers and magazines.

via An Educational Video Hangout with Martin Parr · Lomography.

Big Sur California

by Posted in Black & White, Landscapes Leave a comment
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These were taken on 29 December 2003 with a Canon Powershot S50. They were taken during a period where I’d soured on photography and so perhaps wasn’t taking as much care as I might otherwise have. Unfortunately I didn’t know enough about the benefits of RAW in those days so these are JPGs – and to my mind somewhat oversharpened. It was also rather a dull day so many of the pictures I did take were blurred because of camera shake caused by too slow a shutter speed. These are the only shots that I found to be useable.

It was some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve seen though and I very much regret that I didn’t spend more time on the photographs. Such a missed opportunity. Will I ever get a chance to go back? We still have family in California so who knows?

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On the subject of clichés

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Cliché

The Online Photographer has recently had an interesting discussion on clichés:

The Worst Clichés

So I’ve got a question for you. What would you say are the worst subject-matter clichés in photography? I’m trying to come up with a list.

via The Online Photographer: The Worst Clichés.

The Cliché Exercise

Three Good Ways to Avoid Clichés

Has Everything Already Been Photographed?

This is a subject that is close to my heart. I’ve often thought that my photographs, while not too bad technically, leave a lot to be desired in terms of overall interest. You probably wouldn’t look twice at my pictures. A fairly well-known photographer who was very kind to me (he spent time with me and gave me useful advice) once told me that I had a good eye, but that I relied too much on “photographic clichés”. What I failed to clarify at the time was whether he meant “cliché subjects” or clichés in terms of slavishly following photographic “rules” (e.g. sticking to rule of thirds; not tilting the camera etc.). Maybe even both.

The above posts tend to focus on “cliché subjects” so let’s go with that. I’m starting to be of the opinion that since the advent of cell phones everything has been photographed as nauseam and effectively just about everything is now a cliché. So the word cliché has very little meaning – in terms of photographic subjects at least. So it’s not so much what you photograph as how well you photograph it. There are great photos; good photos; mediocre photos (almost all of mine fall into this category); and bad photos. You can very easily take a bad photo of a non-clichéd subject. It’s not as easy to take a good picture of a clichéd subject.

So I’ll continue to take pictures of dogs, flowers, sunsets and all the other subjects on the list mentioned in the OP articles. Partly because I like many of these subjects and I’ll take pictures of anything that catches my attention – and partly because if I paid any attention to this list I’d never photograph anything: “Oh that looks interesting – Oops! Can’t take the picture because it’s a flower”. “How about that one? Oh no! Taboo – it’s a dog”. “What a gorgeous sunset. Pity it’s a cliché”. I wonder if anyone ever said to Michelangelo: “You know Mike, I’m really not sure about that Madonna. You know Madonna’s have been done to death right? You don’t want to be seen as focusing too much on clichés do you” (not that I’m trying to compare myself with Michelangelo).

I’ll keep photographing whatever takes my fancy. Who knows I might come up with something unique and interesting one day.

Maybe a good definition of cliché in this context would be “All photographs are “clichéd” unless taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson (insert your favorite photographer here) in which case they’re not.”

A busy July 4

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Our dog, Harley spent all of July 4 barking. We were sitting on the patio and suddenly he would see some action on the lake (e.g. a boat, paddleboard, catamaran, kayak etc. passing) and he would rush downhill to the dock barking all the way. He would then run up and down the dock a few times and then run back up to the patio. Until the next boat passed (it seemed like 15 seconds later) and then he would repeat the process. He must have been exhausted by the end of the day – I know I was and I’m sure our neighbors were.

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I guess it was all too much for him.