Here are three photos. Take a look at them, let them cycle through a couple of times before you read the text below the photos. What do you think of them as photos?
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The small photo is of gospel musician Blind Willie Johnson.
The other two photographs are of blues musician Robert Johnson.
Those are the only known photographs of both men.
When I learned that, these photographs became more compelling. Did you have a similar response to the photos when you read the text? If yes, why do you think that is?
josephine crawford
hummm, what do i think of these photos..well to tell the truth i was sort of numb….what do i think?? so then i read the fact that they were the only photos left etc., that made them seem more precious because images or “likenesses” are truly potent and a part of the persons uniqueness(soul) so we love them.
David Licata
You know, when I started writing this post it had something to do with scarcity and abundance. How a photo might have value because there are precious few of them. I was thinking about how many photographs are taken and shared these days, and how that might lessen the power of images. But honestly, I couldn’t get my thinking straight on the whole magilla. So, I put it out there, hoping the input of others might clarify it for me.
As always, thanks for commenting, Josephine. Good to see your name here.
Niall David
I believe the images became more compelling after I had learned the facts about them. Sometimes it’s nice to let images speak for themselves, but in this case the story completes the picture.
David Licata
Thanks for the comment. I was hoping one of my photographer friends would weigh in.
I feel the same about these photos, they became more powerful when I had that additional information. I think we all want to the image to tell the whole story, or capture a defining moment, but sometimes words can augment (sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way) an image.
the psycho therapist
Hmm, less about scarcity and abundance than specialness and impermanence. (Of course this could be easily argued as splitting hairs but it’s the visceral experiential difference that holds the key for me.)
Loved them, felt a connection (attachment?) and the words just expanded the–uh, here it is again–experience. (smiling)
Guess it is attachment after all. (Also a fan of their music.)
David Licata
Thanks for the comment. It got me thinking…
It seems to matter quite a lot that these images are of these two musicians (specialness). If I put a similarly posed lit, and styled photo of my Aunt Gertrude and presented it the same way (“this is the only known photo of my Aunt Gertrude!”), would the photo make much of an impression to anyone outside of my family? But these photos do because of the subjects, musicians who shaped modern American music.
So maybe we can say something like the specialness of these people makes us interested in the photographs in the first place. When we learn about the scarcity, the images themselves become special?
the psycho therapist
Well, I don’t think so, at least not for me. While I *also* like the music of these men, this alone did not affect my ascribed meaning of “special”.
I am not a photographer but I greatly appreciate art. In thinking of not-too-distant posts on my own small blog, I am aware of throwing out photo work of Aaron Huey, Vivian Maier and a mention of stills from the post-Depression era. Each shot that “captured” me and would fall into the category I’m calling attachment/special did so because of lighting, composition and everything else that goes into the ineffableness of photographic “magic”. More to ponder, for sure.
Now you’ve got me thinking more.
And, for the record, I am a friend of Susan Elbe (go incognito as “Wendalina Jolie”) and surfed over here on a whim. What I find rather funny in this moment is *my* Facebook entry for the day featured a slice of Ry Cooder slide guitar briliance. Interesting. Fun.
Hello, David.
David Licata
Well Hello, “Wendalina Jolie”! Glad you stopped by and thank you for writing such thoughtful comments.
Funny about the Cooder-ALW blog synchronicity. Cooder said Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground was the finest three minutes of recorded American music.
The specialness of these photos is going to be subjective. While I like these images and they intrigue me, if stripped of their personality and backstory, I don’t find them as “special” as Vivian Maier’s or Mike Disfarmer’s images. But again, that just me. It’s a bit like that old debate of is it the singer or the song? I think sometimes it’s one, sometimes it’s the other, and sometimes the two can’t be separated. Thankfully, it’s not my job to decide.
But it is fun to ponder.
the psycho therapist
Okay, after reading your post on Disfarmer (and smiling with wonder at two synchronicities, one regarding your choice of shot and a commenter’s recognition of his grandparents and another along personal lines) I am sufficiently intrigued. I am also curious about what might be a thread you are exploring.
What is this?
For you?
“I feel like there’s something else going on between Mike Disfarmer and his portraits and me and A Life’s Work, but I can’t quite articulate it.” You also turn your attention to comparison/contrast with photographic experience with and without, before and after, words. Your “searching” caught my attention.
Just wondering, like I always do.
David Licata
These are big questions, and I’m still more or less working them out, as I expect I will be doing until I leave the planet. But perhaps I’ve answered “What is this? For Me?” best on the “Origins of the Film” page.
http://alifesworkmovie.com/blog/origins-of-the-film/
It’s a search for meaning. There’s another post where I took Francis Ford Coppola’s advice and summed up the film in one word. Legacy.
In terms of photography and words. I’m a writer (fiction and nonfiction, not so much screenplays) and filmmaker, so I’m interested in words and the photographed or captured image. I hope my next big project, a multimedia type thing, will be a merging of written word and moving and still image.
Wondering is one of my favorite activities. I’m all about wonder.