Textures are my guilty pleasure. Cockatoo Island, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Posted by razzbuffnik on July 28th, 2008
Over the years I have given quite a bit of thought about what I want to photograph. I take photographs for different reasons. Sometimes I shoot a subject only because I want to record it so I can use it to illustrate a point I want to make in text. Other times, I like to shoot photographs because I want to capture a phenomenon, which could be anything from a rainbow to the interaction of people on the street, with each other.
I have mixed feelings about phenomena. Capturing some phenomena like sunsets, seems so pointless, as it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Just be there and push the button. Do things have to be difficult to be worthy, I wonder? On the other hand, some phenomena, like capturing a decisive moment has much honour and is what I consider to be probably the most difficult and worthy form of photography.
For me, textures are almost like sun sets. It’s almost like walking into an art gallery and photographing a Rothko. Just be there and push the button.
I went to an exhibition of landscape paintings earlier on this year, and I can remember being struck by the thought that a landscape without some clue of when it was made, decontextualizes the subject so much that it is almost rendered into a pointless decorative exercise. This was particularly brought home to me when I looked at a painting in the romantic style of the early 1800s of a sunset in the Yosemite Valley. Not only was the image kitsch, but because there was no sign, other than its style, of when it was painted, it could have been painted yesterday. I can remember thinking to myself, “what is the point?”
“Why bother?”
The reason why I am so concerned about setting images within time is because photographs that capture a slice of life from a time passed, fascinate me. I just love looking at photographs taken in the street years ago, with crowds of people. I find myself thinking about how they are probably all either old or dead. I also wonder about what sort of lives they had plus the historical context that they’d lived in. I look at the faces of the children and wonder about the world they lived in and how it has all gone for ever.
Photographs of textures don’t really say much about anything other than the nature of the surface, that one has recorded. Sure enough, textures can show marks made by people much the same way as a photograph of petroglyph can.
I remember walking in the bush up in the blue Mountains, just outside of Sydney when I came across some aboriginal hand stencils in a protected rock overhang. I had no idea when these stencils were made and they looked so fresh that I thought they might have been the work of a modern-day vandal. Perhaps they were made recently, or perhaps they were made hundreds, if not thousands of years ago by an aboriginal with a mouthful of red ochre that he spat over his hand that he had placed against the wall. In short, I couldn’t place them in time.
Every time I see evidence of a human made mark on rock, I begin wondering why it is there. What was its purpose? What were they trying to say or achieve by making such marks?
When I was on Cockatoo Island recently I saw many painted marks made on sandstone that had been chipped away by convicts 150 years ago. I suspect that these enigmatic marks had some sort of purpose that helped the shipbuilders but their meaning has now been lost. I wonder if some future archaeologist will spend some time trying to figure out what they all meant and what was their purpose.
Although I don’t really respect images of textures or sunsets for that matter, and I have tried to swear off taking pictures of such things, I don’t seem to be able to help myself. To me textures and colourful things are like chocolate chip cookies in a cupboard. I know that for my own good, I shouldn’t take them, but they know my name and they call to me.
And I am weak.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:02 am
I like them all but the bottom image is most intriguing. While the paint itself reminds me of a shy duck, the um,hmmm what would you call that? changes the image. It’s like a piercing, an eye or just a towel hook. Anyway, it’s an awesome shot. The colors and texture are very well captured.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Oh, I am losing my mind here looking at these!! Losing. My. Friggin. Mind. I tell you. I am immediately going to my hard drive number 1050 and getting my texture photos from a visit to Santa Fe in 2002 and let’s have a Texture SmackDown, shall we??!!!
I swear to you. This has nothing to do with our recent dust up…I simply lose my mind over these type of natural Rothkos. If this is weakness, Razz, let your knees tremble and buckle more often.
They are simply beautiful whether you respect them in the morning or not.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Breathless
Thanks for stopping by and the kind words. It took a while for me to find the duck. I think the ring is to tie ships to, or maybe even to chain people to. Do you have a blog of your own?
Pat
Don’t you be giving me any more assignments! I’ve got enough reasons to procrastinate with my writing.
“our recent dust up”
Wot choo tawkin ’bout? You calling me dusty?
Seriously though, I didn’t even notice that feelings (yours, not mine) had been bruised until a few days later. I guess I’m just insensitive. Some might even say it’s a gift.
I’m glad you like the shots but I feel strangely guilty for taking them. I’m not worried I’ll respect them in the morning. I’m more worried about respecting myself in the morning. I don’t really know why either. Where’s that mean old head of the photography department when I need him?
July 29th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Dear Dusty,
My late brother (I adored him) would call me from time to time during his first marriage and say totally genuinely, “I’m in the doghouse but I don’t know why.”
One time, I said, “Hmmm…do you think it might be the season tickets to The Boston Bruins, The New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox, and the Boston Celtics?” That’s alot of games for a father of four.
Hmm..he’d say. Do you think?
Then, I went a step further and said, “Do you think it might be the fact that last week, after havng a few too many beers after the Celtics game, you drove your Buick Riviera into the garage and continued through the sheet rock of the back garage wall into the dining room on the opposite side? Leaving a Buick front grill as the art on what was left of the dining room wall?
“Oh, yeah” he said. “That.”
And, then, we both laughed till we cried.
He divorced several years later. Some women have no sense of humor what so ever.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Sounds like like your brother and I share the same gift
July 29th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I love these photos and agree with Pat – please stick with this weakness or we might miss out on the beauty.
Is the last picture from Cockatoo Island? Makes me think about those convicts when I see those marks. What a life.
AND looks like we can put the fire extinguishers away for a while. Phew. It’s hot enough in London without you and Pat contributing to global warming!
July 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Epic
Thanks. All the pictures are from Cockatoo Island.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I often take photographs of textures. Sometimes, I layer them in other photographs. I am impure. I sleep very well at night though.
Rothko described modern painting as a physical, emotional, and non-intellectual experience. You think too much.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I really love the one with the ring. You don’t need a reason to shoot that one. It begs for documentation.
I can’t let great textures be, either. While I don’t tote my 35mm around much anymore, I’m always armed with my point and click digital camera. I have a folder in iPhoto that’s simply textures. You never know when you’ll need them!
-Turkish Prawn
August 1st, 2008 at 11:10 am
You are messing with my mind
I remember getting an unpaid job in Arnhem Land 10 years ago for a guy who did “rock art” tours.
Amazing tours, amazing scenery, and an amazing experience.
It was nice to see aboriginal rock art without a rope or barrier in front of it: like Kakadu. Camera abandoned at the entrance to the caves though because of the burial sites.
Love the photos and narrative
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hey Razz, where are you?
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Planetross
I’m envious of your Arnhem Land experience. I bet there’s not many white fellas that have seen what you’ve seen.
Epic
I’m back in Sydney. I’ve been away for three days.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Beautiful images with beautiful writing to go along.
I have been visiting your blog for a while now, but it was your writing about old photographs which has me commenting today. I feel exactly the same way…I sink into them in wonderment of the faces.
From one Aussie to another; keep writing and I shall keep reading.
Miranda.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Miranda
Welcome and thanks for stopping by to leave the thoughtful comment.