Friday, March 28, 2008

The Ones We Love

You may have noticed I rarely write blogs. I think I'm going to begin again. Mostly because my creative side is fighting for time in my life, and it is a losing battle. And this morning, for once, I am regretting this. I don't know what has to be cut out from my life to give room for my imagination, but maybe this blog can keep me accountable.

This may mean shorter, more frequent blogs, sometimes profound, sometimes simple, sometimes just a single idea or impression.

Here's my thought of the morning: If you take a picture of someone you love more than anything in the world, will it make a difference in the photo? Will someone feel the weight and strength of your love when they look at it?

Decide for yourself... check out The Ones We Love. It has turned me into an imaginative, emotional mess this morning, and I have no idea how I'll get any work done today.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Intriguing question for this visual era. I submit that the excellent photographs you have invited us to view take much of their power to move us from the preliminary notes. That glimpse into the meaning of the images and not the images themselves is what connects us. In the beginning was the word...and it is still story that breathes life. When a picture seems to do so, is it not because of the story we bring to it?

Evan said...

I agree that you should blog more often. We probably all should, me included.

I think that there are definitely things that a photographer can do to emphasise emotion towards a subject, but it's not as obvious as the subject showing emotion to the photographer.

Beth said...

Anonymous, I do think that the notes beforehand help connect us. But sometimes the notes are really crappy or sappy, and I go into the pictures with a bad attitude, and then I feel through the photos that there is a lot of love there despite what felt like sentimentality in the note. I don't know if my words are clear. Words are important, theologically and otherwise, and they do help us interpret the visual, but lately I'm drawn to images, perhaps because of their very ambiguity. Images have power.

Tank, I agree that the subject showing emotion to the photographer is evident in some of the photos. But I'm more fascinated by the decisions the photographer makes about how they want to portray and frame their loved one. The photographer has the majority of the power. It's interesting how some people have pictures of their beloved from very far away, or always with their backs facing us, or only one part of the beloved's body. I wonder if we have a tendency not to want to completely reveal the person we love, to leave them shrouded in some mystery. Just some thoughts... continue the word/image conversation...

Evan said...

Interesting, I see what you mean.

On a side note, I like the new template redesign. If you need help tweaking it, give me a shout.

Anonymous said...

Images most assuredly have power, but I continue to invite you to consider that the locus of that power is in the story we bring to the image. I agree that words can be off-putting (to say the least), but I still contend that your/my/anyone's reaction to an image is a function of the story the image evokes in the viewer.

Granted also that the photographer/artist frames the image and therefore reveals/conceals and directs our attention, but it is still the story at work, is it not? Because love is a relation (cf. Kierkegaard's "the relation relating"), and therefore cannot be conveyed statically. But static images can and do evoke--if the viewer is imaginative enough to bring a story to the picture. The love that you believe you see in the image is in fact something you bring to the image, n'est pas? Just as music does not exist in the score, the instrument, or the artist as performer, but in the souls of the listener, performer as participant, and composer.