An Afternoon at Seaburn; Photographic Falderals

Too sunny to stay indoors. And it's that stage of summer when every sunny day is precious. So we got the Metro to Seaburn. We had lunch at the La Fontaine pub. Excellent, it was: a proper Sunday's dinner with proper vegetables, you could tell that none of it had been either frozen or microwaved. Then we had a long walk along the beach, north towards Shields, and then back again along the promenade. I got a few photos.

The Minchella photo I converted to B&W as a tribute to Tony Ray-Jones,, whose photos I love. "Tribute"? Sounds a bit poncey, doesn't it?

The subject of photography occupies my mind somewhat. Affordable digital cameras and the internet have led to phenomena such as flickr and photoblogging. And that in turn has meant that everyone is learning from everyone else: you see an arresting image and think, "wow", and then, "why 'wow'?". That way, informally, hundreds of thousands of people are learning about form, framing, patterns, colour, light, incongruity, metaphor, and all of the things that make a good image.

Brendadada has some interesting things to say about this subject, (though I seem to have missed some of the earlier context of what's being said). Especially interesting is her questioning "how we as picture-takers are perceived in our own communities".

Because it's not just knowing what makes a good image, it's being able to be in a situation to get the image in the first place. When Ray-Jones, say, turned up at a seaside beauty contest he would have a big camera and clearly be regarded as a professional photographer. As such, he had a role and people could relax and he could click away. Then he could leave.

I was able to click away at Seaburn today because people traditionally take snaps at the seaside. But I feel much more constrained at the shops, or in the pub, whipping my wee Olympus out of my pocket. Forsooth.

A lot of that constraint is because I'm part of the community I live in, the people whose images I want to record are my own people. And always at the back of my mind I'm thinking, will people say: "That Garry Nixon was in here again the other night with his camera. The wanker."?

Comments

  1. FactoBruntSun Aug 21, 09:51:00 pm BST

    I always think "tribute" sounds like the person being attributed is dead, or something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garry NixonMon Aug 22, 08:03:00 am BST

    Well, he is. 1972, only just turned 30.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ApprenticeTue Aug 23, 04:12:00 am BST

    Heh.. !

    Garry, some people definitely do say stuff like that. I try and keep out of people's faces literally, because this village is so small, but it's amazing the kinds of things people say to me. In a way it's easier being a ferriner, a newcomer. We're supposed to do odd things.

    Main problem I've had is people remostrating at me for taking pictures of kids playing. I do see their point actually. Some of them may be on at-risk registers or hiding from bad dads. So quite early on I decided that I'd show people their picture in the viewer window, and if they don't like it, off it goes, no hesitation, no worries. There are always going to be plenty more where that came from.

    Good to discuss it, thanks. :}

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leech or flatworm? Ants and Swiss Chard

Image
For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there
Read more

LTPTP XXV: We Shall Overcome

Image
We shall indeed.  It's a lovely wee tune to learn.  I've almost memorized it this morning, the idea being, when I encounter a piano, I want something to sit down and play on the bugger.  I've a feeling that my keyboard's keys are lighter than a proper piano's, and there'll be a bit of effort transferring the skills I've gotten so far.  Probably, at some point this year, I'll be in workplace with a piano.  I'll print off some simple music and scales, and work at it, but it's likely to be in a public place so I want something to avoid making a twat of myself initially. It feels right that this should be the first tune I learn by heart.
Read more

"Chevy Chase. Fuck ever happen to him?"

Image
As Paulie Walnuts said in The Sopranos. It got me thinking. As it happens, he's been working steadily , but you can see what Paulie means. It's like that with film and television actors: you don't see them in anything for a year or two, and you wonder if they're dead or perhaps on a lengthy charlie and booze session. Or maybe doing proper acting on the stage? Only appearing on the telly gives them meaning to us. That video with Paul Simon was on one of the cable music channels the other day. It always makes me smile. As for Paulie and the rest of the crew, the clock's ticking. Of course, America already knows how things finish, but we don't. My mate Ian was telling me about a friend of his, visiting the States a few weeks ago, flicking through the channels in his hotel bedroom, he hit on a repeat of THE final episode, just beginning. What a quandry! He watched it, as it goes, but kept shtum when he came home.
Read more