Final Normandy Images
A much as I think intuition, visual sensibility and gut reaction plays a significant role in the making of a photograph, I also believe that one needs to think about why one is making any particular image and to go through that thinking process before and during the making of an image and afterwards. Based upon my previous posts, one might think that my short-timeframe photographic excursions on the farm in Normandy were opportunistic (read: haphazard) or merely visual exercises. Not quite. Sometimes I wish it were that simple. Quite often, when I have a camera in-hand and am scanning for images, the purpose behind any given image, the reason why I decide a potential image is worth making, can differ between any given shot. Yeah, I may be playing with graphic compositions for several images, but then something catches my eye and gets me thinking differently, and then I explore that subject or concept for awhile. That is until I feel I’ve either exhausted the opportunities along that path, or, more often, something else visually moves me enough to get me thinking why, and that leads me down another path.
As I was going through the images I made in Normandy for the other posts, I remembered that there were certain images I made that were efforts to capture the feel of the place. While not quite the “place” images that Ann often feels compelled to make - those are usually even more encompassing in the framing of the image - these photographs were an effort to go beyond the graphic imagery and plays of textures that formed the basis for the visual exercise images. Perhaps, if anything, these images seek to capture a sense of the character of Normandy farms. Not necessarily of this one particular farm, although they are all from one farm, but of the character of the farms we saw throughout our short stay in and driving through the Normandy countryside.
It is from that perspective that these images were made. Less graphic in focus (though still graphic), and certainly less tightly framed, more intended to give you a feel of the character of the farms we saw during our trip.
It’s a region that is full of history, hinted at in the aging structures we saw time and time again. Many buildings were abandoned, but many are still in productive use.
Buildings that tell of a way of life, of a culture and of the people that live there.
I don’t have many of those types of images, but I thought they were worth thinking about and ultimately developing further. In part, because they explore things the other images I’d worked on don’t.
I think that if a camera is going to be a way (read: excuse) to explore the world, then you have to think about why you should point a camera at a subject and make a photograph and to think about what you (or some other viewer) might learn from it. And because, while you’re making images, the reason you are making particular images might change throughout the period you’re photographing, you may have explored a handful or more different concepts during the photo session. Perhaps that’s why I’m often so mentally exhausted after a period where I’ve been intensely photographing, and why I find so much value in thinking about the images after they’ve been made. As I’ve said before, I don’t make random images. There’s always a reason why I made any given image; whether it’s successful or not is a different matter.
That’s all part of the enriching process I call work and it’s probably why I continue to pick up a camera.