View allAll Photos Tagged thumbnails
The web has revolutionised the way in which we communicate and interact in many ways. In particular social networking sites have enabled you, with just a couple of clicks, to see countless different artist from around the world. It can be a bit intimidating sometimes, how on earth can you place yourself up against the world’s photographic talents and come even close to being of interest in such talented company. (Can you tell I’m competitive? :o)
The statement that there are so many excellent landscape photographers out there isn’t anything new or illuminating. But what I do find sparks my curiosity, is contemplating how this ease of access is shifting, the very way we interact with art (landscape photography in my case). And I wonder if this ease of consumption is altering the popular definition of what is considered good? Am I being unduly influenced by my preferred method of viewing photography? Don’t get me wrong here, (pausing to reflect), this ease of access is fantastic, for many reasons, not least as a method of sparking creativity, but I fear its also problematic. We now seem to inhabit a split second culture where value judgments are made with haste. Thumbnails have to ooze impact in order to be given the privilege of deeper scrutiny and subtleties are being eroded and unobserved. I suppose its only natural that we, as busy working people, will try and utilise our time, but at what cost?
As an art student I went to the Tate in London (for those of you not from the UK, its one of the big classic art galleries) and as an impressionable student, I was very excited to view the original paintings of many famous iconic artists, Da Vinci, Picasso, Turner, and Rembrandt. In the space of a few hours I was being faced with probably the top ten percent of what the world considered great art. Now Surprisingly what developed in me, faced by this overwhelming experience, was a distasteful trophy collecting behaviour. I had oversaturated myself with masterpieces until they became meaningless, totally missing the point of being there, to stand before pieces of art in order to be moved, inspired, even challenged! The over saturation actually worked in a negative way to degrade the experience. I feel this personal example draws strong parallels to the way many of us view images today.
I would then speculate that the art of reflection seems to on a retreat, ironically eroding from its own popularity. So why is this a problem? Surely it is better to pause and reflect on subtler things in order to progress. Better to dive deep than to skim the surface. Is it not better to challenge and divert conventional thinking in order to develop? Can we not learn more from slowing down and concentrating on depth? I personally think so; it makes the experience much more enriching. I also wonder if it’s just me? Am I alone in this belief working against the powerful tide, or are the youth of today laser than we were, are they more likely to take the path of least resistance? Am I just turning into an old git?
Anyway this shot was a result of being forced to an evening in Padstow! (Not in its self a bad thing, in fact the opposite is true, but alas no west facing beach!!!), nevertheless as I’ve mentioned many times before, life cannot revolve around photography and compromises have to be made.
Regarding the shot, I must admit I did struggle here to compose something to fit all the elements that I wanted to capture into the shot. I particularly like the surreal feel to this one embellished by the water movement and the colour, but the cloud formation kind of unbalances the compositional flow up from the foreground into the top left area. I did consider a square crop to boost the composition, but pandering to the ‘viewer’, I would have been. Regardless of the imperfect world, (I have cheered up a bit from my last post), I have a growing fondness to this and I feel it will need some time to unfold on me. Those thumbnail trophy hunters will no doubt pass by bagging “wow’s”!