Day 6 (or the penultimate photo) in the People’s week running here. Another street candid. Again in B&W. Regular visitors here might know that I tend to post portraits or people photos mostly in B&W or monochrome. Unless, there are compelling reasons for it, I find color in portraits distracting. As I read somewhere, "If you are photographing in color, you show the color of their clothes-if you use black and white, you will show the color of their soul." Slightly cheesy, I know, but still very true in my opinion.
Yesterday, I came across this post by Chantal (through Brandon Stone) where she writes very nicely about the importance of slowing down and appreciating subtle details in photography in general and in photoblogging in particular. I found her post especially interesting because these are issues I grapple with myself. I follow roughly 40 photoblogs regularly and I find myself getting overwhelmed and a little lost even with that small number. But this is just a drop in the photographic ocean. There are hundreds more of such good photoblogs. The point I’m trying to make is, perhaps photoblogging, for all its merits, deprives one of the luxury of slowing down and not taking in photography as it is meant to be; as a print hanging on a wall. In our mad rush to visit as many photoblogs as possible and comment with as many superlatives as are available in the English language perhaps we are losing touch with one basic aspect of old style photography. The art of photographing just for the heck of it and not under the pressure of pleasing some random visitor who will in the end just say either, ‘beautiful’ or ‘great shot’. Before digital came along and started this whole photoblogging trend, unless you were a pro, you photographed for yourself. Now, I feel there is the additional burden of pleasing a ‘wide’ audience. Even I’ve caught myself thinking at times about why a particular photo would not be right for my photoblog because it is not eye-catching enough and/or filled to the brim with Photoshop goodness.
And perhaps that is something we need to unlearn. Maybe, we should concentrate on a few photobloggers/photographers whom we can follow in more detail and in a much more relaxed manner. Observe his/her style, the reasons behind his/her taking that particular shot, and how much he/she uses photoshop to rescue a bad photo. I still remember how much of an impact a portrait shot by Cartier-Bresson had on me when I saw it in a photo exhibition of his. I doubt if it would have had the same impact on me if I had seen it online.
One another thing that needs to be thought about is the trend of posting a new photo everyday. While I know why it is beneficial to post a new photo everyday I find that over the past few weeks I’ve been developing a kind of photo fatigue. I’ve realized that the whole process was becoming mechanical and I was no longer concentrating on the reason but more on the result. So much so that I think I’ll go back to my old habit of posting perhaps 3 photos spaced out over a week. The old argument of quality over quantity. Sometimes old arguments hold a lot of water.
Ok, I’ve rambled on long enough but I hope visitors here take a moment to read this and perhaps think about what I’ve said. Of course, this is not to say whatever I’ve said is the truth or the solutions I’ve offered are perfect. Therefore, if you disagree, which I hope many of you will, you have the comment box below to tell me why. 🙂
