"As a picture it is soulless"...

Renee O'Brien wrote:

I have been drawn to the 1901 statement about lens photography and "a
picture which is a triumph of clean cut lines...each detail, near and
distant, is there, making an equally obtrusive claim upon the eye. It is a
wonderful assemblage of accurately portrayed minutia. But that is all. As a
picture it is soulless." Perhaps that is why we need to make images without
lenses.
Renee

Thanks Renée for this interesting quote.

This description certainly fits why I moved away from the world of
fully-auto cameras and hyper-sharp lenses. The advent of digital cameras
has made it even worse, while digital processes provide an incredibly
powerful tool to subtly alter the visual content (impact) of the images.

But, if the creative potential of the pinhole camera is enormous for the
artist, I get a lot of comments that it is becoming a bit too "old
fashioned" when digital imaging is making it possible to do all of what
pinhole does... and then so much more (without any of the technical skills
which kept image-making in the hands of the community of those who could
work in the darkroom)! Which increases the pressure on the pinhole
photographer as an artist to reach beyond what he/she considered the limits
of his creativity with this particular instrument.

Going back to the 1901 quote, remember that the camera is just a tool in the
hands of the photographer. Whether pinhole or digital, he/she works first
and foremost with the ability to reach deep into into his/her Inner World
and to transform emotions into visual material. Moreover, when sharing this
material, he/she has no control over the reactions that will be stirred in
the viewer whose emotional response may even have little to do with the
original intent of the picture.

This is why the Photographer has lost control of the camera to the Artistic
Director in a commercial shooting. Every details of the image have been
worked out ahead of time with the client and the marketing firm in order to
get the anticipated response from viewers! The Photographer's only
remaining purpose is to direct Assistants in making up the scene and
activate the shutter once the AD has OK'd the picture...! A long way from
the 1901 statement but nonetheless fully consistent with the actual
substance.

Guy Glorieux

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Received on Fri Jul 23 06:18:07 2004