edgesby
4trtoneComment by ubique: Iâve used up all my 7, 8 and 9 votes in this challenge, and all I have left is my sole 10. I saved it for you.
This is my top pick, though of course I do know that itâs going to finish at the bottom of the heap in voting. Presumably you knew that as well. But I donât make it my top choice just to be contrary: Iâm quite serious. Itâs not a âgoodâ photograph in any popularly accepted sense, but so what? Anyone can make those, and thatâs the problem â nearly everyone strives to be âgoodâ at the cost of original thought. If we go down that path far enough (and at DPC we almost compulsively do so), then every photograph becomes much the same as every other.
Paul Strand had this to say on the subject:
'Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees. You may see and be affected by other peopleâs ways, you may even use them to find your own, but you will eventually have to free yourself of them.'
Your entry in the Free Study will be dismissed as a snapshot, and derided for its lack of any of the visible checklist of technical proficiency. And for most voters, that will be the end of the matter. No boxes ticked, thus itâs no good.
My view is that itâs a very good photograph. And I donât care if it was the product of an hourâs thought or a secondâs thought. I donât even care if you made this image to be deliberately âbadâ, although from your title I doubt that you did so. Your motivation is irrelevant, really.
It isnât good only because itâs different, though that gets you halfway there. If as a viewer/voter you put aside the conventional, superficial measures of good photography, and
first empty your mind, this photograph has an exceptional capacity to fill it up again ⦠with questions, memories, dreams, sensations and emotions.
The lack of specificity is the strength of the image. Instead of dictating the reaction of the viewer,
(âisnât this the most perfect picture of a thing?â), you are asking the viewer out to play,
(âdo you remember this? what else do you remember? how did you feel then? how do you feel now?â) I admit that it is possible that one has to be of a certain age for this style of image to resonate in that way: I am of that certain age, so I suppose I have the advantage of many viewers there.
I also enjoyed that you had incorporated a subtle unity, a sly cohesiveness, into the physical and emotional elements of the image. Itâs aptly titled
'edges' â edge of the water, edge of the family, edge of isolation, edge of loneliness, edge of the world. And at the edges of the image itself a gentle vignette, used with purpose to help the viewer on his or her way inside (inside both image and self). Even the colour is marginalised. It's a picture of peripheries.
My congratulations for being bold enough, or mad enough, to drive a stake into the ground out at the very edge of good photography. Thank you.
Photographer found comment helpful.