Filed under Mark Tags: linkage — • Written by Mark @ 2:23 pm
Well, the video capabilities of the DSLR, have been long talked about, and our appetites whetted via the films produced by the likes of Vincent Laforet, such as his reverie film. Whilst these are nice and cinematic pieces, there has been a lack of real world use surfacing. Most of the demos, tend to not use speech and are montage pieces with a soundtrack. Until now.
I found about Danfung Dennis’s Battle for Hearts and Mindsdocumentary via the picture stories blog. A post over at DSLR shooter has a nice piece on his setup and some of the issues that he faced in the heat of Afghanistan, the lack of AF, once filming, must be a nightmare in the highly mobile and changeable situation he was in.
Carrying on from the Hiroshi Watanabe post, and the question about whether you see the real person when you pose, or a carefully crafted projection, here’s some of the Men Crying pictures by Sam Taylor-Wood. The fact that many of those she chose are actors, again makes you question what you are seeing, is it real or is it false? Which thoughts were they accessing to make them cry, you see the likes of the Daniel Craig portrait and can connect straight away with the look and the emotion involved. The Robert Downey Jr photo stands out as a very different piece and one that looks self indulgent and pretentious.
Continuing the water theme, Manjari Sharma’s Shower series is a very interesting look at portraits that immediately have a strong sense of vulnerability and intimacy. The act of being in a shower puts the sitter in an unusual and vulnerable position, even when clothed as some of them are. The images also conjure up the feeling of river baptisms, the ritual of cleansing spiritually rather than physically. It’s an interesting series and one that makes me want to hear some of the subjects stories.
Have you ever felt that your photographic mojo has been lost? I know I have, yes I can still go out and take pictures, but that spark just isn’t there… And you don’t know how to get it back.
I’ve been in that situation a few times, the images are technically good, but I just feel they are empty and lacking any passion. One of the things that I’ve discussed with the Real Mark Scholey several times is ways to rediscover that passion and drive; and our conversations always come back to shooting a project. Sounds easy doesn’t it, that’s what I thought.
Setting out with the idea of a project, you can’t just think of a subject and shoot it. It actually takes quite a bit of planning, especially if your goal is to produce a body of work at the end of it for a book or a small gallery exhibition. It takes time, and lots of thinking, planning, re-planning, adapting the project as you progress it. But one thing it does for me, is hand me the passion for creating art again.
And project planning is just what I’m starting now after a period of feeling a little flat and jaded with my own photography. The results of which shall be shared on these very pages!
