Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/31

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Talent
From: Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 21:06:44 -0800

Harrison McClary wrote:
> 
> And many people never develop the tunnel vision a photographer has to
> have  to  select the small scene that represents the whole. This is, I
> think,  the  hardest concept of photography. To be able to see a scene
> that you find interesting and find in that scene something that can be
> recorded  on  film,  that  communicates a feeling, mood, sense of the
> place  to the viewer, this is the hard thing of photography. 

Harrison,
Absolutely.  For me it is a drive to organize the universe, to make
sense of it as it goes by.  The small that represent the
whole--perfect.  Like hiku.  

Many people see "things" but few see stories summed up in a single
moment with all the "back Story" (as they say in the screen writing
trade) forming the foundation unseen.
> 
> I  think,  photography  is like so many things in life some are really
> good  at  it  naturally, some get good at it through hard work but are
> never  "artists"  in the media, and some work all day and never get it
> at all. Same can be said about fixing cars, shooting guns, or anything
> else. Some people have a knack, others don't.

I have worked many different jobs, including craft types and I remember
years back when I had returned to photography and really busted ass
learning how to do all the fancy lighting and so on and one day
realizing there wasn't anything hardly I couldn't figure out how to get
a photo of--and knew then I was a journeyman.  I had gone from a
artist/journalist to a craftsman.  Now the direction is going back
through the craftsmanship to the artist again and using the sharper
disciplines I have learned to make the "art" more powerful.  I suspect
we all go through this, in cycles, forever.

donal
- -- 
Donal Philby
San Diego
www.donalphilby.com