Notes From The Field... Old Friends
I'm often reminded when working in the field, of the late sixties song Old Friends. It's a haunting melody by Simon & Garfunkle that stated "old friends, sat in their corner like bookends". Both the friends and the bookends parts have meaning to me. Old friends represents the feeling and bookends the structure. The explanation in a photographic sense is quite simple but important.
A couple of other examples might be helpful. In my photography travels, as in life itself, I've allowed some influential people to enter and have enjoyed many experiences as a result. Some great, some small but all of them have, I think, added to how I work.
"In order to have a friend, you must first be one" I'm not sure who wrote this, maybe Walt Whitman? No matter. I've found this an important element and metaphor in my approach to both life and photography. It asks that you open yourself up and give, not to consider the return but instead to do what your heart feels. TO CARE! To listen, look and feel. Understanding another person is complex, time consuming and at times very frustrating. Trying the same with a place is even harder but the principle is even more pronounced. It opens one up to failure but also gives the possibility of success. Like most things with odds against it, when success is obtained it's just that much more gratifying.
I don't usually go through these mental gymnastics on the spot when working in the field but somehow I have come to know that I've gained more insight into my subjects over time by becoming familiar and comfortable with them. Feeling for them as I would old friends.
"In order to photograph the Navajo you must first live with the Navajo" were words that came in a college photography course many years ago. I've taken them to heart. To know the people and their conditions that live on and in the landscapes that fascinate me, only seems to heighten the experience of feeling, seeing and photographing. As I get to know some of the people of the Navajo Nation, those words seem more important in every way.
Familiarity is the key I've found. By knowing my subject I begin to understand what it represents and what it may hold for me. What I will need for my composition and what I will not. What angles tell my story or what light I will want for the mood and tone I want to project.
In the top photograph, done late last year with the f-8 and be there Landmarks Of The Southwest workshop, we had a very muted sunset. Light had faded off the landscape and the marvelous last light become the highlight. The composition was adjusted for this and the texture and shapes that would have been the focal point became the foreground that leads into this "quiet" image.
Returning to a place many times helps me to familiarize myself with my composition and also become comfortable. With the feeling of having done this before comes the freedom to create. Knowing what might happen and what has already taken place at different times and in different seasons brings the subtleties of shapes and forms and the excitement of anticipated changes of light.
The second image of the same composition was done two months later. This time the light enabled me to make the texture my focal point and follow it's lines to the horizon. It has much more detail but less mystery. It is loud and bold but yet still holds the basic struggle for existence in this place of wind, stone, ice and blistering heat. The same struggle that it's people face daily.
Two very different compositions but only the beginning. These are winter light images. My thought is to witness this wonderful landscape location in all it's seasons as is my practice with most places that I have come to know and respect for both photographic as well as spiritual value . To f-8 and be there and see what life has in store for this "Old Friend" and to share it's life and make compositions that are "Bookends."
Your comments are always welcome. f8andbethere@cableone.net