Monday, January 20, 2014

And I must wonder what you think of him

These photographs were taken in Helsinki on January 17th.

On Sunday I read a novel by Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, which is a bit lighter reading, and in fact there was written "An entertainment" on the cover of the book. It must be 20 years or so since I have last read Greene, and this book brought up some of the memories.

Most of Greene's books which I read 20-30 years ago were of the lighter type, "entertainments", but they did show the economic writing style of Greene, and it felt good to be reading this novel after so many years in between. There were no unnecessary words in the novel, and there was also a sense of movement, or change, or visual impact, and it is no wonder so many of his books were made into films.

Also, the way Greene tells a story of guilt, and of betrayal, and a kind of redemption, is quite remarkable indeed.

(Posting title is from the poem Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford by Edwin Arlington Robinson.)

5 comments:

Markus Spring said...

And in a certain way this is an approach applicable to photography, too. No frills, nothing overdone, so the viewer can concentrate on the image instead of the pretended cleverness of the photographer. It's exactly that what I like in photographs

Juha Haataja said...

Indeed, there is just that, letting the photograph to tell the story by itself.

This reminds me of Hemingway, whom I haven't read for a long time either, his "iceberg style" of writing, also known as the "theory of omission".

I think this kind of approach provides room for a sense of wonder in photographs as well.

Markus said...

Yes, and this is probably the reason why I prefer reading so much over seeing a film or - beware - watching TV: the latter make it difficult to develop the story in your head.

But I guess only a minority thinks that way - vivid colours, grit, overdone HDR certainly get more attention in terms of numbers.

Juha Haataja said...

Well, perhaps also the kind of society we have encourages "oversaturation" in all topics, even though often the fresh views are not the most vivid or the most bold. And then there is also the subtle humor that is missing from such programs in which one hears (or can imagine hearing) pre-recorded laugh performed according to the script.

Juha Haataja said...

By the way, here is some photography geared for getting attention (and I'm sure there is no photoshopping involved...):

http://petapixel.com/2014/01/21/incredible-photography-storm-chaser-mike-hollingshead/