Playing it safe TOO safe

[MartyNL]

Originally Posted by vincent

Apart from most of the work seen here is in B&W is there a lot of difference between this web site and many camera clubs.

[Jon Butler]

Originally Posted by Tony Marlow

There is a lot of truth in what you say Dave, creativity being just another word for rubbish and not just in photography.

Tony

J.

[JamesK]

As John Lennon once said, "avant garde" is French for bullsh*t.

What gets me is that although there are a large number of photographs on the internet, there isn't, in stylistic terms, a lot of difference between the majority of them.

In addition to this, most of the styles seem to be technologically based and / or determined: HDR, selective colourization, tilt/shift, overcooked black-and-white, faux classical (painting), etc, etc.

I'm not necessarily blaming digital for this: Cokin filters probably started it all off in the 1970s with their nuclear winter / Top Gear glowing skies.

Even many "straight" photographs - and I'm thinking large format here - seem to be exercises in technique rather than creativity, being technically excellent but emotionally sterile.

Although technical aplomb seems to be the order of the day, it often appears to be end in itself, rather than a means.

Perhaps we ought to think less about the gear itself, and more about what we're doing with it.

[CambsIan]

I can't add anything to the club / no club side of this debate as I have never belonged to one.

But I guess that "safe" is open to debate. I take pictures that please me and develop and print them in a way that I like the look of, these may not be ideal in the eyes of other people, but that is the joy of what we do. There are as many ways to print a photo as there are photographers, what is safe to one person may well be experimental and pushing the boundaries for some one else, especially if they are like me a beginner on the road to learning a new skill.

I think maybe a way to prove this would be for someone to provide a single negative that could get posted to any member that wanted to make print of it and then passed on to the next person. When everybody has made a print and the negative returned to its owner all the resulting prints could be placed in one place on the forum for all to look at, bet every print will be different.

Sorry have just re-read this post sounds a bit like a rant, not meant to be.

Ian

[DavidH]

Re- is FADU an on-line club.
I believe there is an important difference. Sadly, my experience of photo clubs many years ago was as much negative as positive (no pun intended). On the positive side was the advice and opinions of others, but on the negative side was the problem of a few stalwarts who not only ran the club but could sometimes be too fixed in their ideas. This can stifle enthusiasm.
With FADU there is a very wide range of people with a variety of ideas and no small "club within a club" controlling things.

[JamesK]

I agree entirely with DavidH.

One could imagine such "stalwarts" merely using photography as an excuse to run a club: if not photography, then model trains or growing marrows, as long as it gave them an excuse to elect each other onto committees and draw up rule books, etc.

FADU is neither a club in this respect, nor one of the "you're an idiot if you have to ask that" kind of forums.

I like it.

[MarcAeonDELETED]

I made front page of the news paper on Tuesday and also had two of the exhibition images moved. OK so I admit it. I placed two of my A2 ish sized images in the cafe area of the venue for effect. But you know they lasted two weeks before I got a call, They didnt request to take them down, but to move them. I was most impressed. The norm for this venue is "Tree in a field" which is fine but its not my cup tea. Being interested in straight photography and an idea that a lot people dont really look at images I threw into the exhibition a stunning sky, rolling hills all seen from a barn window. Only, on the window ledge lay a large rotting crow and then the close up. The image of coffins also caused some interest. Be bold, its more fun and if someone is getting off shredding your images with negative or positive opinion, let them carry on enjoying themselves. I couldnt give a monkies what people think of my work and nor should any of you.

[Terry S]

That all sounds very amusing Marc.

I have been tempted over the years, after hearing of similar stories, to leave an 'exhibit' in a (posh / famous) gallery, to see how long it is before it is noticed and removed.

Is it the story of what you describe that has made, I presume, your local paper?

Terry S

[MarcAeonDELETED]

Its not the full story but I had better not express exactly what has gone on for fear of getting in some real trouble. ( Honestly I cant help myself )

Without giving the game away one of my prints has been valued at £821,000.oo pounds. Not that I have seen any of this. The picture in question is a bit tasty in that I really thought it out over some time and had to experiement a lot to get it just right. I wanted to make a photograph that had many levels of information which, at first glance was just a pile of coffee beans. The image is in two halves and when put together reveal the full story. However, even looking at just one side ( The side I've put up in the Gallery ) has quite a few things to see in it if you study the image. Hidden images, hidden messages, It will take someone a long time to find it all or maybe the right person will see it all in an instant but, and done for reason, the rotting crows pull the crowd to the wrong pictures. I know its easy to shock, anyone can do that, so I have used that old technique of war time counter inteligence to divert the eyes to the wrong things at the gallery. I know that everyone that see's the crows will never forget them and for those that can look a little more, the coffee bean image is far more than what it would first appear. I will be doing more concept photographs shortly. A long way from my first and last entry at the Yardley Photographic Society in Birmingham some 30 years ago. ( bringing the thread back on track ) That was a 35mm slide of stalagmites and stalactites taken with a Practica TL1000 and I thought they looked amazing. That photo bombed with a little muttering and flick of the wrist onto the next shot of a tree in field photograph. Fufnny enough a tree in a field won that weeks round of images. Again.

[Terry S]

Can you upload at least one part of the picture into the FADU gallery Marc, so that we can see what you are talking about please?

Curiosity is getting the better of me!

Terry S