The other stream seems to be a cerebral way, it is about ideas, and often referenced to art and photography itself, the art and craft is often done before the photograph is taken, a quote by Jeff Wall says it very simply, some are hunters and others are farmers.
I don't think one can successfully, or it is maybe better to say, find that comfortable natural and ultimately satisfying way by making some choice to follow the fashionable path at the time. It comes down to ones personality, our genes probably point the way. I know from my own experience in former times of being a painter, I was always restless standing in front of a blank canvas, but out in the open air with a sketch book the images seemed to spring up everywhere.
how a photograph is presented changes everything Well maybe ... for me it does. I like big photos, especially if they are filled with lots of seductive detail. Standing before a large Gursky in a gallery, I've only seen one, is different to reality where ones eyes take in a small circle of focus. The gallery experience is like standing above the grand canyon and using a pair of binoculars.
Now this sense of awe has one profound effect on me, I begin to have an inordinate desire to purchase big format cameras, at least 80 megapixel sensor. I'm not much interested in using film, I don't like the idea of spending the equivalent of a days groceries for one exposure. I am addicted to instant gratification, a sense of spontaneity and exploring ideas with instant feedback on the LCD screen. The dilemma here is the costs are about six years worth of my disposable income.
I will make this as brief as possible, With sturdy tripod, panoramic tripod head, L plate, canon 5d mk II and stitching software I filled my hard drive with 0.5 gb tif files. I had one printed on a durst lamba machine and framed at considerable cost. It looks great, I still admire my handiwork, all that detail my eye did not see at the time of the 4 or 5 exposures that make up the print. I'm glad I made the print, and maybe I will make some more, but it is a dead end street, I just don't have the wall space for more than three 1.5 metre photographs.
This logic didn't follow quite as I have outlined, lt is more hindsight actually. I was reading the essay in the book "the pond" by John Gossage, written by Gerry Badger, here is the paragraph that switched the light on for me.
"he would be pleased to be termed an 'auteur' rather than an artist, for this seems a more accurate description of his attitude towards the medium. Or an editeur-auteur, to paraphrase Atget, one of the photographers he most admires" ..... "He consistently sees photography in terms of the collective statement contained in the book rather than the individual statement circumscribed by the picture frame". - Gerry Badger on John Gossage.
Notes to myself: 1. don't worry about expensive exhibitions. 2. Start thinking books, this is the way I mostly enjoy photography anyway. 3. Just use the camera gear that I have, even ten megapixel is ample enough.
Posted below are 4 photographs around the streets near where I live.
