Of vision and photography.
This post started as a response to a comment made by a friend to the earlier post. But my thought took me a little further than they should have, so am posting the ramblings here as a post.
well, the earlier post alludes to something grander and something that runs through many of my earlier posts and has consonance with what you said.
reality is something that one constructs about oneself. reality isn't an absolute. Mahatma Gandhi's quote 'to your own truth, to your wisdom, thats where u must go', has stuck with me like anything, and lends itself to the notion of reality and here it ties up with the question of vision.
Our 'truth', our 'wisdom' is constrained in the frame of our vision.
I celebrate that increment in conscience with increased field of vision in the earlier post.
Secondly, the thought was inspired from an observation when looking. The vision of man. if I am to talk in terms of photography, Ayn Rand's 'man' would be picturised with the man dominating the frame, and gaze being from lower vantage than the subject.
As against, a Lovecraftian character would be framed in a corner of the frame, being looked down upon.
Both instances provide a revelation of sorts, mind u, but they steal away details from the person and renders him a 'hero' in the sense that he is removed from his reality by the act of framing. Much of our literature and popular culture is based on this act of removing a person from his context and reintroducing him with the assumed qualities.
The revelation that I spoke of in earlier post is neither of these two, but a person in context to his world. Suddenly shapes and sizes in vision have a politics of their own. The person can relate to the grandeur of the car he is driving -An organism of his progeny, and the man in control of it. An organism bigger, stronger than him and still he may 'get inside of it' and 'get out of it' along his will; The man comprehending the fullness of a skyscraper, the emotion of awe mixed with triumph.
I am shy of photographing any other way. Its a handicap sometimes. I have a inertia towards capturing portraits. I absolutely turn pukish to take photographs with the subject posing for it. And I hardly ever use flash. I don't like the act of photography interfering with the subject's context.
well, the earlier post alludes to something grander and something that runs through many of my earlier posts and has consonance with what you said.
reality is something that one constructs about oneself. reality isn't an absolute. Mahatma Gandhi's quote 'to your own truth, to your wisdom, thats where u must go', has stuck with me like anything, and lends itself to the notion of reality and here it ties up with the question of vision.
Our 'truth', our 'wisdom' is constrained in the frame of our vision.
I celebrate that increment in conscience with increased field of vision in the earlier post.
Secondly, the thought was inspired from an observation when looking. The vision of man. if I am to talk in terms of photography, Ayn Rand's 'man' would be picturised with the man dominating the frame, and gaze being from lower vantage than the subject.
As against, a Lovecraftian character would be framed in a corner of the frame, being looked down upon.
Both instances provide a revelation of sorts, mind u, but they steal away details from the person and renders him a 'hero' in the sense that he is removed from his reality by the act of framing. Much of our literature and popular culture is based on this act of removing a person from his context and reintroducing him with the assumed qualities.
The revelation that I spoke of in earlier post is neither of these two, but a person in context to his world. Suddenly shapes and sizes in vision have a politics of their own. The person can relate to the grandeur of the car he is driving -An organism of his progeny, and the man in control of it. An organism bigger, stronger than him and still he may 'get inside of it' and 'get out of it' along his will; The man comprehending the fullness of a skyscraper, the emotion of awe mixed with triumph.
I am shy of photographing any other way. Its a handicap sometimes. I have a inertia towards capturing portraits. I absolutely turn pukish to take photographs with the subject posing for it. And I hardly ever use flash. I don't like the act of photography interfering with the subject's context.
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