On Monday I was thinking about two sayings about photography - "a photo is a secret about a secret", "a photo allows the viewer to study a secret". Actually, I'm not sure how the original versions of the sayings go (I could check with Google but prefer not to). What was interesting was the point about the secret. To be interesting, should a photo contain a secret? And do all photos have such?
I'm often listening to radio when I'm driving a car, and every once in a while there is an interview where the reporter is not allowing the secret to come out. Or rather, he or she has a fixed idea and tries to get the interviewed to person to say things which fit that idea. But when the reporter stops being stuck on a routine and starts to listen, sometimes a really interesting and big "secret" comes out, much more interesting than what was the expectation. (And of course, sometimes there is no secret at all.)
My photos typically contain only little secrets, if any, but I feel that the saying about photography "allowing to study a secret" relevant nevertheless. Through viewing a photo you can gain understanding - or at least an appreciation - of a secret.
And here is also why I'm very much against "playacting" in photography, with which I mean setting up a photo shoot with all kinds of paraphernalia not included in the "original scene" (if there ever was one). Many photos of this kind have great visual impact (and thus they are used in advertising etc.) but I don't really appreciate artificially produced "secrets".
Finally, a comment about languages and words for snow. While writing about the Inuit language and Finnish, I forgot to say that also Swedish has a lot of words for snow. This is of course quite natural given the Nordic climate.
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2 comments:
Well, I guess this one's a rather big secret, huh?? I love this image for all its movement. It looks a little like a torrent, but with the colors? I have no idea, but it keeps me looking. I guess that means sort of success, right?
I learned something when taking this photo.
First I took a lot of photos of the children playing in the snow, but when reviewing the results on the lcd I noticed that all failed as photos. And then I realized that I had been protecting the camera from the snow which the children threw around, thus keeping a distance.
But the first rule (a good rule) of working with a wide lens is "go close to the subject". As soon as I did that, not trying to fit everything into the photo, I got this "mystery" photo. I'm not sure what is happening there either.
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