First, I did not take "artsy fartsy" as a personal slam, for I know I am not "artsy fartsy". It is a term I: 1)believe to be reverse snob- ism and 2) avoid. I am, however, enjoying this conversation so don't take that as a slam against you personally. ha. and I don't understand how you could be dead wrong about saying what you believe, even if you were to change your mind. This is no contest, there are no rules or points to gain or loose, disagree all you like! and I thank you for your disagreeable ways. ha, again. Now onward...(posted 8697 days ago)Well, yes, it's about photographic seeing... what photograph isn't? and don't we (as photographers) frequently see in photographic terms, recognize what we see in this way as an appropriate view to photograph, and then whip out the camera and do it!? To go beyond that, don't we see the subconcious relevance of this type of vision? The bicameral mind of humans, the capability to experience multiple realities simultaneously?
Let me relate what I mean to this specific photo: To be in the position of the camera (me), first person, arising from your lover, from your shared physical, emotional and spiritual experience, you come out of that close, active hypnotic state and step back... suddenly recognizing all of the other things that made that moment like no other, the heat of the 2nd floor bedroom, the hum of the fan, the pattern of your bodies on the sheets, the soft light of the late morning... your focus shifts from her back to the world and you see, and think, "My God, where's the damn camera?".
Had the focus been the other way, it would have been a picture like many others. While many other men have made photographs of their beautiful lovers, none were in that room at that hour on that day with the breeze and light and a woman there so close that seeing her was almost more than bearable. Arising from the intensity of her, the room came sharply to my senses and this is the picture I made.
And beyond that, to expand the hyperfocal to include all in my field of view would have demanded either a tripod or much higher speed film and neither were suitable, handy or desired. This photograph is precisely about a man making a woman sitting on a bed look like art, she was art, the whole moment was art and, I'm astoundingly happy to say, still seems like art today... t