Reality…Barn & Falling Snow

What it Looked Like…What I Saw

Snowy Vines

   Apologies for a 2 month gap in Stories Behind Every Photograph. My email account was hacked and the vendor who sends out these Blog emails took an inordinate amount of time to validate my recovery email to reset the account. The April Story Behind Every Photograph is below.  

    While I have long believed things happen for a reason, I had never actually heard the term God Winks. A dear friend, Kathy P turned me onto the metaphor which goes to my belief that mere coincidence is a singular word for something we don’t fully understand. Webster’s Dictionary defines Coincidence as “a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection” This month’s Story Behind is more than a coincidence…a God Wink if you will !

   Bear with me while as I tie this month’s Story Behind together, there are 3 parts to this God Wink.

   # 1, My career in photography started in an unusual way. I accompanied a friend to his monthly professional photography meeting in 1981, he was a working pro photographer. Essentially that means these men and women’s skills were advanced enough for each to make a living selling their imagery to the paying public. In that very first meeting I would meet the closest friends I have to this day. My mentor Jack, 15 years my senior and one of my dear photography friends Tim. Both have stayed at my home scores of weekends for sharing our visual art with larger groups of like minded photographers. I would learn later in life, Tim is married to a distance blood cousin of mine…God Wink ??

   From those monthly meetings I would become enamoured with the Black & White genre of photography. I studied the works of Ansel Adams and other contemporaries work. Adams imagery were departures from reality, by his own design ! The Black & White genre is already abstract in nature being devoid of color. Ansel took the B&W abstract to an extreme by creating dramatic scenes of Yosemite National Park and other landscape wonders of the western United States. One of the most iconic and beautiful landscapes in our country would become recognizable around the world because of his imagery…imagery he saw in his mind born from inspiration from what he saw in front of his camera. He used the flexibility of B&W film and the tools he understood, combined them with perfectly arranged spatial relationships to create visual art. So, where I entered the world of serious photography, skill notwithstanding, my approach was always to create what I saw in my mind. To render what was in front of my camera into an emotional connection. My B&W skills came quickly given my passion, my mentor and the like-minded friends I chose to surround myself with. I felt it took near 20 years for me to become comfortable with my own B&W vision to convey and shape the image to my emotions of what I chose to set up my camera on.

   # 2, I have long thought there is a general misconception about photography as it relates to the photographer who creates the photograph. Therein lies the reason I almost always use the term “image” rather than photograph. I believe the word image can submially convey “creating rather that recording” what is in front of the camera. In the context of this month’s Story Behind image seen here and the video below illustrates what the scene “Looked” like as I drove by in a snowstorm. 

Bethlehem Barn in Snowstorm

On my way to my granddaughter’s basketball game in Pennsylvania in heavily falling snow I passed this barn. A half mile down the road my mind formed the image I “Saw” as seen in this month’s Story Behind Every Photograph. Three things stood out in my mind as I drove past the barn. The white snow covered vines and their lyrical shapes, the angular shape and heavy textures of the barn and the small window in the perfect compositional point simply adding mystery to the image in my mind. In those few seconds while navigating slippery roads I realized I could straighten the barn, darken the barn’s texture and lighten the snow so the snow covered vines would be most prominent. I quickly turned around and went back to take the image I saw in my mind. There would be post-processing steps on the computer to create what my mind envisioned. As an FYI these computer steps are similar to the steps to correct perspective if the image was taken with a film camera, there is no computer magic, simply understanding the techniques necessary to create the image I saw.

So, when a social media post of what the scene “Looked Like” against the final image of what I “Saw” created enough “I had no idea” feedback would simply validate my belief many people believe the photographer simply records what is in front of them. To bring the concept full circle, a close friend had a reaction to a museum visit that would further solidify my thoughts. The idea of a mechanical device such as a camera or cell phone couldn’t possibly be as creative as the Mind to Hand connection of creating art by painters and artists…or could it ?

# 3, In the artworld there has always existed the perception that artists / painters “create” what is in their minds. Photographers on the other hand simply use a mechanical tool to “record” what the scene looks like in reality. Therein lies the disconnect that photographers are not artists and and were never held in the same regard as painters ! That close friend, Betty Z calls me to go with her to see a local Norman Rockwell exhibit, unfortunately I cannot make the last closing day of the exhibition. Betty goes to the museum to see the exhibition and soon learns the backstories to many of Rockwell’s iconic Americana imagery. Later the same day of the museum visit Betty sends me a message, “we should get together and talk about the NR exhibit”. Betty learns that Rockwell used a camera to zero in on his concepts for a particular painting as seen in the photo below from that very exhibition.

Rockwell Concept

Later that week we meet for coffee and talk about her takeaways from the Rockwell exhibit and visual art in general. My personal take-away to Betty’s response of Rockwell using a camera to “sketch-out” his ideas was “surprise”. Her response in learning NR did not just immediately put a brush to canvas validates my point that many casual observers believe artists “Create” and photographers “Record” .

   So, in a very real sense, photographers are bound by far more obstacles and challenges than a painter or artist. Virtually every time I am driving a car I am sketching out compositions in my head. Much of the time as I put the pieces together in my mind…there’s a tree in the way, if only that light pole wasn’t there, wish the sun was at a different angle, and back when I was using a large film camera, that damn wind is moving the subject !

    Lastly, some may wonder how the perspective of the barn was altered ? No magic, simply leave enough room around the image and the image can be tilted forward to return the verticals to parallel. Simply using the space in my composition to my advantage, in a similar way a view camera selects the area of focus to be used in the final rendering.  

   The next time you see a photograph that inspires or speaks to you consider this anecdote…A photographer goes to a socialite party in New York City and is greeted by the host who says “Your photographs are amazing, you must have an Awesome Camera” ! The photographer says nothing and continues to enjoy the evening and a nice dinner. As the photographer is saying good night to the host he says, “That meal was fabulous, you must have a Terrific Stove” !

   Not appropriate in today’s culture, the aforementioned anecdote reminds me of the metaphor my Dad constantly drilled into my head as a young boy…It’s never the Arrow, it’s always the Indian”.