Sontag and Dyer

I finished reading Susan Sontag's 'On Photography' and started on Geoff Dyer's 'The Ongoing Moment'.  Sontag is concerned with feelings and morality, on the changes that photography has made to art, to how events are viewed, to how photographs themselves are perceived.  She says of the photographs of Diane Arbus, 'The photographs make a compassionate response feel irrelevant.' (Sontag 1978, p 41.)
An event becomes important because it is photographed, yet the image is quickly detached from its emotional context and becomes only a picture, maybe a work of art.  She regards photography as Surrealist: 'Surrealism is the art of generalizing the grotesque and then discovering nuances (and charms) in that. No activity is better equipped to exercise the Surrealist way of looking than photography, and eventually we look at all photographs surrealistically.' (Sontag 1978 p74)

I found it difficult to get into Dyer past the front cover puff from Sukhdev Sandhu of the Daily Telegraph, 'Quite possibly the best living writer in Britain'.  But once I had, I found him informing and entertaining.
Dyer reviews not so much movements in photography as the themes to which photographers seem compelled to return: the blind beggar; benches; hats and poverty.  'Except there is, I am beginning to suspect, a strange rule in photography, namely that we never see the last of anyone or anything.  They disappear or die and then, years later, they reappear, are reincarnated, in another lens.'  (Dyer 2005 p156.)
Photographers look at photographs and are inspired by them, so that they tend to look like each other in a way that painters don't.  Braque and Picasso issued pictorial challenges to and fro but their paintings are still distinguishable. The book contains very poor reproductions of photographs but even these serve to give a flavour of some of the originals.
There's more history, too, and interesting to hear the back stories of Weston, Steiglitz and Strand.  Via painting I came across Georgia O'Keefe long before I heard of Steiglitz.

Dyer, G. (2005) The Ongoing Moment, London, Little, Brown.
Sontag, S. (1978) On photography. London, Penguin Books

The Lacock Photograph

Here's Fox Talbot's window.  The items on display are camera replicas.  I'm busy: my play Katie and Peter is on at the end of June, but I expect to do more photography at the end of the month.  Looking forward in particular to  Dr Sketchy's on 28th July!

OCA: People and Place: Exercise 2

Settings, Background, Location.
The brief calls for six very different settings or backgrounds that could be used for either a whole body or torso portrait.

Updating this post on 4th August 2012, I need to close this exercise.
If I had to choose six I'd choose numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9.
I'm very busy this month so I'm not closing this exercise yet, but I'll choose from these, plus maybe some more, when the time comes.
(1) At first I struggled to think of more than one.  I put together this setting in the conservatory.  Suki's a terrific reader, so the books are characteristic:

(2) Then, on holiday in Wiltshire, I found a brick wall:

I grew fond of it, and took several pictures, but this has stones to sit on while keeping the face in shadow of the branches.

(3) A gate in another brick wall provided several possibilities including peeping through it from either side.

The ragged lower edges to the planks appealed to me. Light glows invitingly on the edge of the door, illluminated by reflection from the brickwork.

(4) Similar, but differently lit, is this doorway.  Here the door is shut, but sunlit foliage will frame the model, who stays in shade:

 My reluctance to take this shot of someone's front door shows in the unsteadiness, and I'd reject it: need to consult the householder before posing a model on his step, to avoid an embarrassing interruption.  Must be in position in time to catch the sun in the right place.

(5) Okay, it's another brick wall, but the the builder's sack provides a quirky seat:

(6) This odd-shaped alcove at Lacock Abbey has a pleasing glow:

The windows give the opportunity for 'business': peeping through; add a face peering out; sitting on the windowsill.

(7) Also at Lacock:

Why is someone always sitting in the best place?  Maybe the best locations are those already occupied.  Humans, like cats, choose the best places, so the way to capture a location is just after someone has vacated it. 
This bench allows the model to sit, lie or sprawl in the shade, against a leafy background.
(8) And four nicely spaced trees near the car park:

More peeping and leaning.  Suit a Dryad?

(9) Someone had already made a path into this oil seed rape field at Rabley:

Timing is vital with crops: half the petals had already fallen and more fell during the day.  The blue flax fields are just coming into blossom.  Watch out for allergies: both photographer and model.

(1) There's this kitsch but striking cartwheel bench in a pub garden:

Exposure is an issue here: the sky's blown out and I've already lightened the bench.  Need to time it right or use fill-in flash on the model's shaded face.

(11) Another attractive location with permissions issues is the Jaguar XK8:

This elegant model cries out for another - in either seat.  Need to wind down the windows.

It turns out that anywhere might be a suitable location for a portrait.  I did have a few thoughts on the choice:
Light: need enough for the exposure desired, but preferably not shining brightly in the model's eyes.
Background: any clutter should contribute to the image, not distract.  Five minutes behind the camera can save an hour in front of the computer.
Health and Safety: photographer is responsible for the safety of the model - he's telling her what to do.  Also for his own.  So many great shots are best taken from the fast lane of a busy street.