It is not big news if I tell you I am not much of a photographer. Sometimes I like to think I am and I enjoy making shots of faces and of sunsets, yet most of the time it is a frustration. Which gets worse when I enviously look at my daughter’s photos or photos that my blogging mate Razzbuffnik keeps producing. Damn Aussie!
Anyway, there are weird things that tend to happen with the help of internet and the blogosphere. You see, 24 years back when in India for the first time, on my search for enlightenment, I had a National (that’s how Panasonic was called long ago, kids) point-and-shoot little camera and I did some shots here and there. For the needs of this blog I scanned some of them with our simple office scanner.
So, about a year ago a reader from Canada contacted me, asking me whether he could use the photo of the a little boy leading a big buffalo (I still remember I took that one in Mathura). I was rather surprised, never thinking one could use my photos for anything at all… Anyway, to cut the story short, he did some editing and art work with the photo and it has already been printed in Canada as a greeting card!
Just imagine! I find this rather crazy, funny and very, very enjoyable. It is amazing how the internet connects the world, across the space and through the time.
The boy is, I guess, about thirty now, the buffalo has long been reincarnated (perhaps into our bossy cat), and the world keeps spinning round and round.
What makes your shot so interesting is that it shows enough elements to have a narrative.
It’s also interesting what the graphic artist has done to your shot.
It’s almost as though they are making a point about how what we choose to frame and how we choose it shapes the way how we think about the image.
In short, some people think that the very act of selecting what we shoot is like putting a frame around something to subjectify it and our subjectivity changes the image to the point that it has been argued (by post modernists) that photographs aren’t objective documents of “reality” but are in fact products of our own mental architecture.
Comment by razzbuffnik — April 5, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
Razz – thanks mate, for seeing the story where it was me only action on an impulse. You cannot even imagine how much pressure me and Lucija feel nowadays, walking around with our cameras and banging our heads about what uncle Razz has told us; what is the story we are trying to tell, what is the story…
Comment by Robert — April 7, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
I was just trying to help.
Perhaps it might be easier for you to think about why you are attracted to taking a photo of something. Then think about whether or not you can “improve” your shot by trying make whatever it is that attracted you more clear and obvious to another person who will look at your shot.
All images are communication of some kind or another.
The decision for most of us who want to communicate in whatever medium is whether we want to mumble or to be understood.
Comment by razzbuffnik — April 8, 2010 @ 5:54 am
Razz – I know, I know you were helping and you were very helpful. We are grateful for that, but this “story thing” now turned into a private joke between me and Lucija. When she sees me taking a photo, she asks: “What’s the story, what’s the story…., nah,… I don’t think Razz would call this a story…” You are a legend in this house, you see…
And thanks for further clarifications and hints – it really helps. Not that it can be seen in my photos, but the theory, at least, is getting clearer.
Comment by Robert — April 8, 2010 @ 6:34 pm