Ruminations...
Enough of “the unusual, bad, weird” times. From the viewpoint of an artist working in the modern world a pandemic is just life. You play the hand you’re dealt.
There is an event approaching, my 80th birthday, that is surprising to me because from my memory the family members I watched at 80 were different than I am. I “feel” about the same, think the same, approach things only slightly differently and that because my body is wearing out. But the ideas stay or appear at the same rate and questions always recur for extended thought and puzzlement. It’s still fun to be here.
I’ve noticed lately that I photograph with the iPhone in a more spontaneous way… something that may be teaching me to behave the same when I’m using other machines. I use the Canon pretty much for nature photography but the Leicas for the same things I make with the iPhone. Nice to have all of it.
Long discussion with Jonathan Hillyer yesterday about a comment Minor White is supposed to have made about photographs revealing the photographer who made them. Jonathan was asking how that works exactly. I’m not sure it does. First you’d have to determine if you can reveal very much about anyone with an analysis of the creative elements of their life, with or without their narrative about themselves. What can you know for sure about someone beyond the physical obvious? Not so much, I think. Not to say humans are always deceitful but we seem to hold the truth of ourselves we think we know in reserve, seldom revealed, if ever. If that’s the case was White saying a photograph reveals that part of us we are holding in reserve separate from any other sort of life event? I don’t think so because if the truth were revealed it would be the same for all observers and it’s not. Talking about a photograph to discover something about the photographer probably says more about the observer than the photographer. Or something like that.
