Yann Tiersen.
5/17/2008
taken : 5/17/2007
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This picture has not quite fit in with the theme I have been developing for the last couple days with the landscape shots for class.
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The feeling for the last couples days photos have been to portray a real sense isolation.
I have been trying to make the photos feel a little surreal...contrasts are pushed to the limit.
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The technique is to show really vast, open, empty areas. Small signs left from people have been in the photos (the dirt road and fence/the small string of power lines/an old run down building). It's like traveling through these vast expanses following the traces of human life, but always falling short...still always being alone.
No matter how hard you try, you will never find those actual human connections. You are just traveling through these spaces looking for any sign of life that might point you in the right direction... but somehow you never find those people.
In a sense it's like spending tons of time with a person(s), but never actually being close to them. Never actually knowing who that person is.
I suppose then it eventually becomes too late. You can't navigate out of those spaces and make a connection with that person(s). You are only aware of the threads that almost solidified those connections.
(This is actually why my girlfriend from freshman year broke up with me.)
So you go and you go through these landscapes looking for anything, but you just seem to be always end up alone.
I have been pursuing this (and in a way have been on again off again since last year) idea because it has been on my mind a lot lately.
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On the level of environmental photography I thought it would be nice to play with the idea of disappearing landscapes. I go to these places, and choose not to show any actual people. The spaces are huge and empty. It's like no one wants to be there. So often I have been the only person in these areas.
Then eventually all the land will be gone. There will be new "Manufactured Landscapes" And then people will be nostalgic about those vast open areas of beautiful land they hardly spent any time in. Only after it's gone will they appreciate it.
They will be only memories...and it is my belief that memories are very weird. Memories aren't even that reliable. It is like in Memento when Lenard is talking with Teddy about memory.
"Police go on facts...not memories. Memories can change the shape of a room...they can change the color of car...FACTS...not memories"
Thusly the surreal landscapes. I want them to embody memories, not facts. These are supposed to be like what someone might remember as a landscape...and because thoughts and memories are so abstract in themselves, these landscapes hint at exactly that.
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Although I don't know if I am successful with either of these ideas.
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P.S. I took the above photo while photo adventuring with Morgan and Natalie. The last time we photo adventured together as a group was 4/21/2007. 392 Days ago.
WEIRD.
That is why the daily picture project is weird.
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P.P.S. Thanks for throwing down some money on breakfast Mike. That was nice
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Broste out.
1 comment:
Sometimes I feel like I'm just floundering as an "artist" taking photos, like I'm just pretending like I know what I'm doing. It's hard to grow without some outside influence from those more knowledgeable than yourself. Sometimes I wish you and Scott would talk about the photos themselves in your blogs more often. I love being able to gain insight into your photographic thought process, and for that reason I love this post.
Ultimately I think it helps me.
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