Wildframe

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After the ruthless criticism that my recent food photography was too "saturated" I thought I could use some pointers ...how about you?

Du Broc is among a growing number of enthusiasts training their cameras on food. Home cooks, culinary tourists, farmers market shoppers and restaurant diners are all snapping pictures of what they’re cooking and eating, often posting the pictures on websites, blogs and online photo albums.

Many times the photos are good. Too often, they’re not. Beautiful, memorable food can easily be washed out by a flash, go blurry or get lost in the clutter.

“Food is very, very hard to photograph,” says Ben Pieper, who created Four Foodies (fourfoodiesblog.wordpress.com) with his wife, Kim Pieper, and friends Mark Morton and Jane Kortright. “It’s amazing how quickly it can be gross.”

All of us at one time or another ask the same question: “Is my life meaningful?”

We fear the thought of an existence that starts on a birthday we celebrate year after year until we perish, leaving seemingly nothing behind. We struggle to find meaning in everything we do, however trivial.

And since we have difficulty defining meaning ourselves, we look to others to do it for us. What better way to validate what we do than to have it witnessed and appreciated by others?

A Witness to Our Lives

Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” But it is also true that, for most, the unobserved life is not worth living.

It’s been that way since prehistoric man first scrawled on a cave wall in the South of France and said, “Look at me. I did this.”

Enter photography.

For the last 150 years, photography has added meaning to countless lives.

It would have been incredibly difficult for Gandhi, for example, to have made his life as meaningful without photography. His power was magnified by those photographers who brought us images of an almost naked, frail old man defying the biggest empire of his time.

Of course, Gandhi was an exceptional person. What about the middle manager with a wife and two kids who lives around the corner from your house? Where does he find meaning in his life?

Increasingly, he finds meaning in being photographed by friends, family and passersby — and ending up on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. Who knows, he might even go viral — and his simple, ignored life might suddenly seem quite important.

What started with “look at me, I killed a bison” cave drawings has evolved to today’s “look at me, I learned to Jet Ski during vacation” Facebook photos.

Springing into Meaning

In between Gandhi and your neighbor in middle management, there are thousands upon thousands of lives that have sprung into meaning because of photography.

That man in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square. The Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire to protest the war. The man holding his bandage as he walked away from the London bus explosion. Or that woman who held her baby after an earthquake.

Or even Paris Hilton. What would be the meaning of her life without photography?

Fear no more the darkness of oblivion. Photography is here.

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This will be worth following...

New York Times (blog)

Suit Filed to Allow Photography Near US Buildings New York Times (blog) Citizens should be allowed to take photos while standing in public spaces near federal buildings, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday ... NY civil rights group sues over federal photo banThe Associated Press US legal action seeks public photography rightsBritish Journal of Photography all 207 news articles »

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On ABC iView right now and expires in another 23 days.

The compelling tale of a pioneering woman photojournalist who created some of the most indelible images of mid-twentieth century America.

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Another doco to put in the diary.

8:25pm Sunday, 16 May 2010  Society and Culture CC PG 

Tags: Documentary
Posted in TV | No Comments »

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Available on ABC iView for the next 12 days.

Five acclaimed professional photographers give a truly intimate insight into their process and how it illuminates the human side of photography.

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I recently looked at getting one of these but my budget wouldn't stretch that far. Instead I purchased a 77mm Kenko/Hoya ND400 slim (circa. 9 stops) at around a third of the price.

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I love this photo, a combination of pinhole photography and multiple exposure it carries a sense of ethereal spirituality.

By far my favorite thing about the pinhole camera is the ease with which I can shoot multiple exposures. "Railway Child" and "Thicket" are my two favorites.