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I like film...(open thread)

Doc Henry

By Doc Henry
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Michael Hiles
Michael Hiles

Bonjour Henri,   I still prefer black and white film (I use almost no colour). The advantages of digital don’t mean much to me. Seeing instant results is not so useful, since what comes out of a cam

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This photo is from a series from some of my crazy, extreme photo adventures I  had photographing Mountains "Alpinists " and rock climbers. This is Alpes mountain range which is called   "Le Massive du

helged
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On a week-long stay at the Faroe Islands, I took the ferry from Torshavn (the 'capital') to the southernmost island, Suduroy, and looked up potential shooting locations on the island. This image was t

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stray cat

stray cat

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Oh, you do like to tempt with the segue! Lawrence of Arabia had a profound impact on Spielberg, too, so you are hardly alone counting Lean's masterpiece as one of the top films, ever. Before I visit the scene you've chosen, let me echo in a way your point that if we reduce photography to a "stylistic construct, the simpler it is to find photographs everywhere--at will." A mindful characteristic we take for granted in that construct is the emotional connection. It is all in the editing, having a specific point of view. The viewer, after a fashion, becomes the doppelganger, the photographer's double, because in looking at the photograph, the viewer shares exactly the same unique visual as the photographer. It is all in the photographer refracting, editing the world through the lens, the mind, of a unique talent. I remember a comment that Ralph Gibson made in Camera magazine that I saved April, 1978:

 

"I used to stand around waiting for a picture to happen. Then about fifteen years ago, Dorothea Lange told me that you can never take photographs that way. Even though it will sometimes happen, the odds are stacked against you. You have to incorporate your life into the picture. Now I am always working from a set of concerns. It could be problems involving scale, volume, proportions, or surface. I perceive something and experience the urge to photograph it. I try to decide whether I've done the picture before. (I don't want to imitate myself.) If it's a step forward within these concerns, I take the photograph." 

 

Gibson's point may be elementary, but I enjoy his brevity and clarity. Still, he seems to have left out the emotional part of the equation. Ultimately, what does the photograph say? What's the issue? What's at risk?

 

It’s editing reality, which brings me to Lawrence of Arabia.  David Lean was first an editor with an eye for composition that informed how one shot cut to the next.

 

I could shoehorn an interpretation of the scene you mention into something that might be analogous to the challenges of photography or plight of the photographer, but taking such liberty would be presumptuous. As for the scene of Lawrence extinguishing the match with his bare fingers, it is directed to dramatize a facet of character. Moments later, Lawrence repeats the action, but instead of using his fingers to extinguish the match, he simply blows it out. Cut to: sunrise as the sun announces a new day against a stainless sky over an unspoiled desert. Visually, the match equates with the sun in Lean’s iconic cut, while metaphorically, it could well represent the flames of war, the igniting rebellion, which Lawrence is to extinguish.

 

I don’t remember that Lawrence shares this particular narrative in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but he does confess a slide towards the masochistic, which dramatically plays out later in Lean’s film, meaning that the "burning match" scene is hardly gratuitous.

 

Cheers,

Rog

 

 

Thank you so much, Rog.

 

Let's not forget that T. E. Lawrence (my wife is actually a reasonably distant relation) left the original manuscript for The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in a train and then hurriedly, to meet publication deadlines, rewrote the whole thing from memory in a few days - so maybe all that is in there wasn't all that there was to be said. However I suspect it would have been far too daring of even he to have written too much about his own personal idiosyncrasies given the rather post-Victorian attitudes (and laws) prevalent in the UK at the time. A good read, though, and when Edward and others (I think) have so beautifully photographed Wadi Rum and other places that were described it is always an incredible delight for me.

 

I really like your recollection of Ralph Gibson's quote - it is indeed brilliant advice (after Lange) from which we could all benefit. But you are right to add the question of emotion, and - critically - "what's at risk?". Also this: "The viewer, after a fashion, becomes the doppelganger, the photographer's double, because in looking at the photograph, the viewer shares exactly the same unique visual as the photographer. It is all in the photographer refracting, editing the world through the lens, the mind, of a unique talent.". We enter into a transaction with the viewer of our photograph - whether it be in a room, a gallery, on LUF or wherever. We don't necessarily choose the specific viewer for our photograph, and often the viewer simply by serendipity comes across our photograph. But once the relationship is consummated, the transaction agreed and completed, the two are forever enjoined.

 

To my way of thinking, Lawrence in the scene is, among other things, expressing his right to entertain his idiosyncrasies. And why not? We all have them and they are, as you perceptively point out, unique to each one of us. And if we wish to present a front to the world, why on earth would we not want to invoke every one of our own idiosyncrasies - because only then will we be presenting something that is truly and exclusively "us". Certainly Ralph Gibson took that well on board, especially in his early work - that trilogy built around The Somnambulist is such a perfect little exercise. As did many artists we know of and admire - even cherish. Those who copied others well, who knows them? And, yes, that cut to the desert - it's the kind of moment of genius that even the great David Lean must have thought "YES!" as he punched the air. I know we in the audience felt it. As you state: "It is all in the editing, having a specific point of view.". The editing in that movie is perfection.

 

I hope anyone here who hasn't seen Lawrence of Arabia will maybe get the chance to do so. There are very few movies that are so intensively photographic in their mise-en-scène (Antonioni's "L'Avventura" is another). With practically every scene - were it a still photograph we'd be hailing it as a masterpiece. And of course the movie is so much more than even that.

 

While we're at it with the wordplay - the profound realization that "Leica" is an anagram of "Alice". So when we are using our Leicas we may well understand why it is we find ourselves in Alice's wonderland.

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Peter_S

Peter_S

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Posted

It's been a while....really miss not being able to check in hear as often as I'd like.  Work has been insanely busy, fortunately this outlet exists to help keep my sanity.

 

Here is Winter's final parting shot from April 2018 - Jersey City, NJ Waterfront

 

Leica M6J / 50mm Elmar-M

Trix Shot at 800iso; Pushed 1.25 Stops

Hand Developed using HC-110 B @20c

 

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2018-04-01-0008 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

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2018-04-01-0017 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

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2018-04-01-0003 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

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2018-04-01-0014 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

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2018-04-01-0016 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

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2018-04-01-0024 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

 

Very nice - b/w film is still my favourite medium when its snowing, really brings across the mood

 

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Wayne

Wayne

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Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Greetings

 

Minox B, Kodak Vision 3 50D, slit from 16mm film

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A miller

A miller

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NYC (can anyone see me?)

M-A, 28 cron, Fuji Pro 400H

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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