photography now

If you’re were asked to put a finger on your all-time favourite photo (you took) which one would it be? Why? And what’s the story behind it?

Right now I think my favourite is the one of the floating fire. I took it last February on one of my last nights living in Vancouver. My roommates, a few pals, and I all got dressed up warm and went to the beach for my last bonfire. We had some trouble finding dry wood and I ended up setting a couch cushion on fire and throwing it into the water when we realized how bad it smelt. It stayed on fire in the ocean for nearly 10 minutes. It’s probably not the best photo I have taken, but it brings back good memories.

- interview with Canadian-based photographer, T. Reilly Hodgson on PICDIT http://picdit.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/photographer-interview-t-reilly-hodgson/

Is this what photography is today, the photography that is admired and revered? Street photography gone grunge. We no longer see highly praised pictures being well composed, well lit, formal imagery but quick poor quality (in terms of composition, construction and execution) snaps of daily life. It’s about memory and personal experience and recording that for public display. Voyeristic insights into situations and antics at times difficult to decipher, adding to its mystery. Or maybe I am missing something, that they are actually carefully considered reflections of psychology and society. Superbly shot and postproduced to achieve the ill considered snapshot effect. Many images we see are enhanced and photoshopped to create extreme dramatic effect. At what point do photographs become interpreted artwork images, a vague reminiscence of the original photograph or photographs. Does it matter that images still referred to as photographs are compilations of several images or altered so far beyond the recording of an actual situation that they no longer resemble the subject (darkened, saturated, hdr, etc).

As a purist (street) photographer, I believe that what I take with the camera is what should be displayed. The art of the capture, of the subject, surroundings, timing and lighting with a camera. Knowing your camera well enough to use it to achieve the best result without the need to artificially enhance. I suppose I am hypocritical as I use digital equipment and adjust contrast and colour after shooting. In my view that is no different to how early (non-digial) photographers achieved spectacular results through darkroom manipulation.

Perhaps Barbara Kruger’s comment in an interview with Juxtapoz Magazine #118 is relevant here:

“I’m just averse to saying that there’s a political art or a feminist art. I’m saying that there’s art, and when you categorize that you tend to marginalize the practice”

So whether a photograph is true to it’s original form (colour, lighting), post produced, taken with digital or film, composed or collaged, street, landscape, portrait, etc, it’s all photography. The photographer will have a view as to what constitutes a great image and the viewer will have a differing opinion. Our hunger today is for images that tell a tale about life as we experience it and that we can relate to.