Trees and Dreams in the Fog, PART I
What makes a good photograph? Aside from a few hints about perspective, don’t know and don’t give a damn. Just as with any form of art, I can only tell you what I like and what I don’t. More careful descriptions serve only to buttress my opinions in a plea for agreement, or a manner of taking off my hat and bowing to the artist.
An art critic’s opinion is only as good as a TV football commentator’s, who with great solemnity tells you which team will win the big game and why and how. Doesn’t affect the outcome of the game one whit.
But, I can tell you this, with some assurity, a good painter will splash color on canvas with complete indifference to what anybody thinks, just as a good quarterback will run his offence and expect to win, no matter whom the experts picked.
A good artist lives on a diet of self-satisfaction, and often dines alone.
A good writer or photographer or ceramicist is the same. Popularity and art are two separate entities and seldom are they friends.
I once overheard a woman ask an artist, whose work I admired, “I like this painting, but could you do it over, with more orange to match my couch?” Only the threat of arrest and imprisonment allowed me to silently walk away.
Art doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of the paintings on my walls are literally child’s play, from my sons’ elementary days. Emotion can make any art beautiful, just as love can make any woman beautiful or any man handsome.
Another example of simplicity: The French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, only used a Leica camera with a fixed 50 mm lens. He shot in B&W and created photographs that to my eye plumb the depths of emotion. His specialty was the candid photo. As he famously said, “Take the shot or lose it forever.”
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| One of Bresson's most famous photos |
Fog and trees and riders in the fog and braces of foliage along the highway intrigue and fascinate me. Today I offer a few examples of when ‘I took the shot.’
Are they art? Don’t know. Don’t care. I do care that I took the shot.
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