A well known view for me, and also a rather favorit one, I guess. I hope the series of pylons is good enough on this. Any comments would be very welcome.
Thanks a lot Visar, for the insightful comment. It coinsides with my own views. You touched so many points here!
About least manipulation. To many, and especially to the "diligent" you speak about, it seems to be unimportant. You just shoot something, you apply 3675 filters, and you sell it as "arts". But this is only confirming the own incompetence in mastering the camera. To all "diligent" I simply say with a poisonous smile, go convince National Geographics about that. ;-)
So we approach the subject that you refer to: Reality as a supplier of the *ontological moment of view* of something, which could be just about anything, *but*!!!!!....
And her comes the big fat *but*!!!
It has to be put on the image in such a way that the special gets visible, tangible, or even "admirable". The search for a subject is definitely *not* the search for more and more bombastic things. An image is *not* good merely because it depicts something "amazing". It is good if it manages to *make* it look as amazing! Herein lies the silent attitude of photography, and not in the typical bombastic fanfares of the diligent. Or else there would be not a single good photographer who never had the luck to be in some "amazing" place. (Yes! Hear that swiss "photographers"!)
We *have* to deal with composition as a very strong component of photography. If we manage someway to use the *available* in the sense of a composition, then we make progress. Even if the available includes the wires ;-)
My statement about that: See those wires, don't think them away. Think about their optical properties. Put them into the real context, instead of "beautifying" the scene by cloning them off, or anything else. Then, you must take some dozens of images of the scene until something good comes out, and this is surely cumbersome. But then, you have discovered something! You really had the priviledge of being allowed to *see* something in a way that it preserves its character, but it also compliments it. And this is far beyond any kind of "photography lieth". ;-) It is much more recognizing that the transcendental number pi doesn't even care about any wish for "beautification".
A gig of a rock group could never be as intense without all plecks, hum and rumble, feedback, controlled uncontrollability. Surely, you can filter it, and cache it all away. But then you end up with a "beautiful" sterile studio album, which says more about the studio than about the group. And that's a pity!
Olga, you could use the usual emoticons. I can't read your mind, when you write something. I can only read your message, which of course includes not getting your point at times. So, thanks a lot for the clarification here.
Of course it is not only Lucerne that is different in many places (but way not everywhere). I live here, and I can only say something about the local attitudes. Any opinion about places where I am as a tourist for a couple of days would be inappropriate. I could talk about *some* guys I meet here and there, and about the "right places", you mention. But this can't be extrapolated to a general comment. A comment about a society can't be based on the few "good fellas" I happen to know. When we talk about a society we have to take a wider look. And also to participate in discussion as responsible citizens interested in social/political matters.
Even if I have my "good pals" here, I still depend on that general climate in my everyday life. I was expected for example to be as precise in my office times, as their clocks are, or be "diplomatic" with my comments on the used methods at work, or to live in those generally accepted "work and order" ideas of times long past. Of course I didn't do that, and I found my own niche in which thinking is more important than wearing a perfectly ironed tie exactly from 7:30 till 17:30 in the office. But that general convinction about the latter as the best thing you can do is undoubtfully very strong, as is their whole conservativism. Most people around can't even grasp that I don't work in some of their usual glittering economy sectors. The word science, and the kind of living that it implies, is almost completely opaque to them, as is my indifference to most of their "ideals".
Some weeks ago there was another voting for giving the police the right to hunt away homeless people from public places just because they "make it look dirty". A very big part of the population was for it. They didn't even think that the whole country is actually public, and thus: Should the homeless be sent to.. where? We hide them under the carpet for preserving the image of a small clean country of the rich and the cute? We spend millions for new jet fighters and we don't have some bucks for giving the homeless a place to sleep for free? I think that there has to be sensitivity about such questions, no matter if I had the luck to know some "good pals". Or else the concept of democracy would be endangered.
Well, in all fairness, I do like this photography for the mere fact of the not even least manipulation of it, and taht is the trademark of your photography Nick.
I think I have mentioned in a previous comment on some photo of yours, that in my view, the ontological essence of photography "lieth" ( ;)- i do enjoy some queen's english words every now and then; too affected with the language of Nick Cave) with its unique ability to establish the undeniable fact that in one particular place and time your eye made contact with a unique event. thus, having a camera one is overwhelmed with uniqueness of what our world serves us in a plate. now, does that give right to all diligents to take a photocam and go out and burts photos?! NO. (but that is a different things to talk about). In addition i do not think that only the uniqueness of a particular happeneing is not enough for a successful shot as there are many other 'components' to get there, such as composition- which undoubtly is spot on and takes most of the credits for the success of the photo. furthermore, it is so well designed that it almost reaches for a perfection of design and shape of many details that stand in a rigorous order with each other-- even the hateful wires ;). It is much alike with the 'two groups and two persons', and it is reminding me of teh devine number 3.14!! and i sure you know better of what i am talking here.
all what I have written was not meant too seriously. I mean "perfect swiss trains", it´s a part od criticism...looking beautiful and filled by "perfect human beings" doesn´t mean perfect. I am the one who doesn´t like this "too great patriots" in Swiss cities. Yep, I am Slavic and have spent there some time so I know clearly what u´ve meant. But I doesn´t agree with you in one point. My experiences during staying there (what wasn´t that much short but not too long as well) let me know that each country is crazy...it´s only needed to visit the right place and meet right people. You say Luzern is different, but not only Luzern. But that´s just my opinion. Luckily, there are still places where people don´t wear Rolex and what even more..they don´t need to mesure the time to live and stay alive :) Best wishes olga
Thanks a lot for the nice comment, Olga. I am glad if it says something to you.
I guess I already implied that many times, but here it is once agaon. I don't even try to get images of "impressive scenes" anymore. I am in the streets of reality, not in some contentless kind of Disneyland. And there are much more powerful criteria for looking at an image than any kind of typical spectacularity mania, which at the end is very short ranged, even if this would rather upset many too many people.
Switzerland is indeed small, but it is not crazy. It is one of the most narrow minded, conservative, primitive attitude land, considering it not as the sum of its spectatular mountains, but in terms of its man dominated, work and order only society, that still has the fear of the "slavic invasion". Blocher is out of active politics (thanks heavens for that) but the greatest part of society still tries to keep that idyllic nonsense and live somewhere in 1870 while we are in 2008!
As about the "perfect" trains, well, I don't see that. I see only an arrogant and completely disinterested travelling crowd, for which of course it is too much to close the door when coming out of the train toilette, but at the same time they will try to be some kind of "representatives" of "higher life quality" with their golden rings and big houses.
In other words, it is not bad if somebody never took time to read Dostoevsky. We all have our lack of knowledge here and there. But not knowing about that *and* at the same time being so convinced of being "cultivated", and thus also automatically empowered to contribute to "culture", this is something that only the Swiss can do in such an egomanic, self-convinced way. And this is manifested in all their "neutrality nonsense", while at the same time selling war equipment at the best prices to the imperialists of this world, or changing their minds today and making deals with people that they stigmatized as aggresors yesterdy. This land behaves like a cheap prost****ude, caring more than anythind else to preserve the own luxury.
Thanks heavens again, Lucerne is different. Not in all its parts, but in many many places here there is a movement, that gets stronger and stronger, of people that care for something more than their golden Rolex and their next one year journey to some exotic land. This will be the subject of my next series too.
Switzerland needs a real revolution in order to remember again its humanistic legacy.
this reminds me all those hours I´ve spent travelling all around that crazy small country...so many times i used to leave or arrived to the platform at Luzerne´s station
not a bad shot I mean, really common situation during a common day, nice documentary shot...the great and too much perfect swiss trains :)
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