Friday, June 27, 2008
En route to Shanghai
Comments:
I saw this on your blog first, so I've seen some of the things that you've said about it. Having a paid driver on a photo tour is cheaper in China than California I guess :-)
I like the way that the figure and the ?water tower make the same relationship as your recent shot of a person beneath a tree. This is very much DS.
As an individual photo, the yellow bands make it.
I agree with Colin about those yellow bands. Yes, yes.
Your photos from China fascinate me. There is for me an unmistable bleak quality broken up by just enough color to shout, "life, energy, and action."
Again, like Colin, I am taken by the tiny figure of the man dwarfed by the water tower, I assume. He is so remote there at the end of the walk and overpowered by that great featureless mass of sky.
The image certainly doesn't fill me with any feelings that are pleasurable, but it's not really unpleasant either. Most of all, it won't leave me be.
The yellow lines help but are not essential and the figure gives some feel for scale even if he is a little bit small to make out useful detail.
Apart from getting an extra ration of snow from last winter (the most snow-free I can ever remember) I find the housing and its detail most interesting; and the relationship of the water tower to that street (visually, even if it doesn't supply it direct). The housing block on the right is typical of those built since WWII whereas the one on the left has all sorts of additions that the inhabitants have used to help in their lives. So it is interesting to compare how people living in close proximity have different 'homes'.
This is not blowing me away yet I do find myself drawn in to it via the yellow curbing. It's interesting though how the snow is camouflaging those power lines. I find a certain amount of tension between the two rows of houses...as if they are facing off on the 'tachiai' (a sumo term).
'This is very much DS.'
From the image quality, I'm going to bet this was taken with a camera with a relatively small sensor. Despite that, this maintains an aesthetic that I most often associate with medium or large format work. It's a characteristic that I see in a lot of your work, but I'm always hard pressed to pin down what it is that makes these images look like they were done with a larger camera.
Matt, yikes! you appear to be treading on the 'style' issue;- )
Interesting comment, as I had stopped using a 35mm for my work in favor of a medium format in 1974, which is the format I used until 2006 when I purchased the Canon G2, then I used both digital and 120 film until 2007 and went entirely digital until a couple of months ago and started using both again. I am very, very compfortable with the medium format cameras.
So that begs the question of does the format of the camera you use further define how you see? How you photograph (camera) influence what you photograph? Does the composition become more formalistic with regard to the format of the camera?
Not that I have the answers...
The orthogonals all lead to that scaling man. His size belies his significance.
Your images also give us an insight into modern China.
An interesting thread on this. I don't have the same feeling about the size of the man in relation to the water tower as I did the image with the man and tree -- not sure why the difference, but the scale did not strike me that way on this one. I do agree about the yellow curbs.
The slushy foreground, complete with watery pothole is what I am really relating to. I can vividly imagine what it is like to walk in it (I haven't always lived in Florida!) and it brings me into the image and its atmosphere. Not a place I'd want to live, but I'm interested in the virtual visit.
the yellow lines on the gutter pull me in and invite me to get past that messy slush. But then I'm still in a mess of snow and wires.
After visiting your site daily for a while now I can definitley see this as yours Doug.
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I like the way that the figure and the ?water tower make the same relationship as your recent shot of a person beneath a tree. This is very much DS.
As an individual photo, the yellow bands make it.
Your photos from China fascinate me. There is for me an unmistable bleak quality broken up by just enough color to shout, "life, energy, and action."
Again, like Colin, I am taken by the tiny figure of the man dwarfed by the water tower, I assume. He is so remote there at the end of the walk and overpowered by that great featureless mass of sky.
The image certainly doesn't fill me with any feelings that are pleasurable, but it's not really unpleasant either. Most of all, it won't leave me be.
Apart from getting an extra ration of snow from last winter (the most snow-free I can ever remember) I find the housing and its detail most interesting; and the relationship of the water tower to that street (visually, even if it doesn't supply it direct). The housing block on the right is typical of those built since WWII whereas the one on the left has all sorts of additions that the inhabitants have used to help in their lives. So it is interesting to compare how people living in close proximity have different 'homes'.
From the image quality, I'm going to bet this was taken with a camera with a relatively small sensor. Despite that, this maintains an aesthetic that I most often associate with medium or large format work. It's a characteristic that I see in a lot of your work, but I'm always hard pressed to pin down what it is that makes these images look like they were done with a larger camera.
Interesting comment, as I had stopped using a 35mm for my work in favor of a medium format in 1974, which is the format I used until 2006 when I purchased the Canon G2, then I used both digital and 120 film until 2007 and went entirely digital until a couple of months ago and started using both again. I am very, very compfortable with the medium format cameras.
So that begs the question of does the format of the camera you use further define how you see? How you photograph (camera) influence what you photograph? Does the composition become more formalistic with regard to the format of the camera?
Not that I have the answers...
Your images also give us an insight into modern China.
The slushy foreground, complete with watery pothole is what I am really relating to. I can vividly imagine what it is like to walk in it (I haven't always lived in Florida!) and it brings me into the image and its atmosphere. Not a place I'd want to live, but I'm interested in the virtual visit.
After visiting your site daily for a while now I can definitley see this as yours Doug.