Psychologically, economically and culturally threatening presentation. Documentary toward more self-conscious practice.Will Steacy's images were thought provoking compositions, wide open aperture with long exposures giving a high quality, story telling images. Todd Hido's images told a story in sets, narrow apertures, pictures taken from inside a car with rain apparent from the windscreen which were emotional and occasionally distressing.
After the visit to the exhibition 'And Now It's Dark - American Night Photography' I noted the difference in initial impression between myself and my fellow student companion, whose approach was one of identification of technical queries, elements I myself would like to improve on. My reaction was quite different, when I first see a photo I initially consider, almost without thought, consider the feeling of the image and what if any, emotion is within. I was reminded of this approach when reading 'On Landscapes, Interiors and the Nude - Todd Hido', where he states:
'In the first days of graduate school, we were prescribing our work, and I remember how Larry (Larry Sultan, Californian Collage of the Arts) noticed the picture (boys hands gripping the branch of a tree). He was touched by the strain in the hands, he recognised something there and said "that picture's about the human condition and not about somebody in a tree, it's emotional", that's one of the most important things I learned from Larry, he made it okay to make pictures that were emotional, and it was really important for me to open that door' © 2014 Todd Hido, Aperture foundation inc.
The exhibition stuck a cord with me, I sometimes fine it quite natural to read the emotion in an image from my perspective anyway, drawing my opinion quite quickly. This is how I feel about many styles of photography, but mainly those that fit into a set, that tel a story, every photo has a story, it's a moment caught in time, there is a story to be captured everywhere we look, even the most inconspicuous has a reason for being, a story, a moment it's that extra 'something' that is there but not obvious, emotion in a picture adds depth and meaning and for the type of photography I'd like to produce.....essential, respecting the moment in an instant, in a positive or negative way.
'In the first days of graduate school, we were prescribing our work, and I remember how Larry (Larry Sultan, Californian Collage of the Arts) noticed the picture (boys hands gripping the branch of a tree). He was touched by the strain in the hands, he recognised something there and said "that picture's about the human condition and not about somebody in a tree, it's emotional", that's one of the most important things I learned from Larry, he made it okay to make pictures that were emotional, and it was really important for me to open that door' © 2014 Todd Hido, Aperture foundation inc.
The exhibition stuck a cord with me, I sometimes fine it quite natural to read the emotion in an image from my perspective anyway, drawing my opinion quite quickly. This is how I feel about many styles of photography, but mainly those that fit into a set, that tel a story, every photo has a story, it's a moment caught in time, there is a story to be captured everywhere we look, even the most inconspicuous has a reason for being, a story, a moment it's that extra 'something' that is there but not obvious, emotion in a picture adds depth and meaning and for the type of photography I'd like to produce.....essential, respecting the moment in an instant, in a positive or negative way.
And Now It's Dark - American Night Photography
I'm now reading Todd Hido's book 'on landscapes, interiors and the nude', one of the chapters talks about taking pictures in the same place. In the chapter 'Repitition as Progress', Hido talks about a list of rules that he keeps for art students, by sister Carita Kent, the first rule is "find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while", Hido goes on to talk about staring in the same place to take photographs, he'll make a picture of a place, and go back and re-take it to 'see what happened', going back again and again. He describes how his work evolved by going this "Repitition is just part of the creative process".
This image below evokes the curiosity of the viewer, the car tracks in the snow shows someone has recently left, the light on in the room upstairs, why was the person there? To plan an images such as this would require a degree of repetition, firstly to know that the car leaves the house at a certain time maybe? The image is intriguing and yet disturbing at the same time.
Todd Hido - And Now It's Dark
Hido says in his book, "Fredrick Sommer used to say 'variation is change' that's the thing about photography that's so curious.There's something essential in doing the same set of actions over and over again. It's a kind of ruminating. There's a comfort and consistency in the repetition, but its' not too comfortable, You're not bored. There is still something sustaining your interest, pulling you along. You have to trust that you will come up with something different, arrive somewhere new in the process. It may start with making a picture of a house that's orange instead of blue"
Again, with this image, the image certainly offers a level of 'comfort' the soft tones of the colours and the gentle glow of the lights, Hido had taken several versions of this image to adjust where the corner of the fence fell within the frame to give the viewer the feeling of 'peeping' over the fence.
Todd Hido - House Hunting (Nazraeli Press)
I'm really getting a lot of inspiration from this book, not only does it look at buildings and spaces, which is great for where I am at the moment, but much more than that, Hido has an emotional approach to his work, much of his comments really strike a cord with me, I feel like, possibly for the first time, a really useful connection with a photographers work and dialogue. Many photographers inspire me and I feel a resonance with what many of them say, but Hido's work and dialogue makes me feel like I've found direction, that's it's ok to be led by the emotion more than the technical. I've only started looking at his work and reading his book, I'm hoping to get a great deal out of it. I'm even considering changing the direction of my next assignment to one taken 'in the dark'.
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