11 September 2012

Art is dangerous.

It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it. --Anthony Burgess

Photography.

I talk about it a lot. But that is because I love it.

Especially black and white photography.

If  every photograph I took could be in black and white, I would be the worlds happiest camper.....err well..... photographer.

It's simple. It's complex. It's classic. It's beautiful.

One of my favorite quotes about photography is from Ted Grant:

When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.

For me, black and white photography the most accessible form of photography. The most accessible form of art. It is accessible because anyone can read a photograph. It is about the emotion behind a photograph. Even if it is subtle, it is there. From the turn of the head. Or the faintest of smiles. The story is greater that just what is seen in the photograph. It is open for great interpretation. It's all about what the viewer sees and feels in that very moment. With no cues, there is nothing to draw you away from how you feel about the image.


  

  
But then of course, sometimes not all photographs translate well in black and white. Sometimes you need a photograph to be in color to help express the story you are trying to tell. 
 
The notion that you have to be a certain size or shape to create art is absolutely ridiculous. By definition, I am neither pretty or beautiful or the subject many artists would like to use in their work. I am oddly shaped, round, with curves in (mostly) all the wrong places. But that doesn't mean the above pieces aren't works of art nor does that mean they aren't beautiful. The camera has a way of showing us what the eye can't see.

The camera doesn't have a preconceived notion of how someone should or shouldn't look. The camera doesn't know what society deems beautiful. The camera doesn't care if you are a size 2 or a size 32. The camera doesn't care if you weight 100lbs or 400lbs. The camera is an extension of the person operating it and I am a firm believer that if the photographer sees beauty in what he/she is shootings (i.e. photographing) than those images will also be beautiful.

5 comments:

  1. I love your photographs! that is one thing I wish I had an eye for. I will have to try and practice something, I've been inspired.

    Stephanie
    www.bassability.blogspot.com

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  2. Wonderful photographs! I've been recently thinking that I would like to have something similar taken of me but haven't had it done yet.

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  3. Hola Meg!
    These photographs are beautiful! YOU are beautiful! You've just inspired me! Thank you so very much for sharing! Ahhhh...

    ~SimplyyMayra :)

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  4. beautiful pictures, beautiful message!

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  5. your photos are great. it's so frustrating that everything these days seems to look the same. that everyone has to look the same. and if they don't, they are simply ignored. made invisible.

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Thanks for reading!

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