View Single Post
  #6  
Old 8th November 2008, 10:41 PM
Sandeha Lynch's Avatar
Sandeha Lynch Sandeha Lynch is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wales (UK)
Posts: 398
Default

I agree with that point. Any output is potentially part of a dialogue, not least because images form part of our language of expression as much as sound or words.

I have certain criteria to satisfy when shooting or processing, but I shoot as a way of recording and feeding back to the world. There have been times I haven't been able to show my work and that has left me feeling very frustrated - I think I would feel equally frustrated if there were no images to view!

What happens after ... depends on many variables, including the ability to extend the dialogue, finding an audience, listening to (or observing) feedback, etc. The web is a superb medium for exchange, and learning, and therefore also for raising visual literacy. The interest in NoWords type threads in photography forums would be worthy of study, given the way that people post in response to a title; sometimes snapshots, sometimes high art, recent or from the archive - anyone can take the opportunity to contribute. And though possibly naive and done without any kind of reflective awareness, even the cameraphone teen galleries on BeBo facilitate visual exchanges.

There's a photographer I'm aware of, long dead, who kept his negatives carefully filed throughout WWII and never got to see them printed. Another I've come across from the same period never even saw his films developed - they were developed 60 years after they were taken. That's a sadness for them, but the late discovery of these images can be a joy for those who come after.

When I started a photo website in '98, I entitled it Visual Records partly because I was looking for the most straightforward title possible, something that would not be misleading no matter which photographic avenues I ended up following. Much later it dawned on me that I could hardly have chosen a more appropriate title for the range I tend to cover. The site gets a dozen or more individual visitors each day and even though I rarely (very rarely) hear from any of them the indirect awareness that my work is being seen gives some satisfaction.
Reply With Quote