Covered Bridge No. 2 ~ Winter 2009
I find it strangely beautiful that the camera with its inherent clarity of object and detail can produce images that in spite of themselves offer possibilities to be more than they are … a photograph of nothing very important at all, nothing but an intuition, a response, a twitch from the photographer’s experience.
Joel Meyerowitz
Because the camera, as tool, allows one to capture clarity, a sharpness of focus of the object being photographed, that does not translate into a clarity of subject matter contained within the four corners of the image. What makes a photograph so intriguing is the very interpretative nature of the image itself. What appears clear on the surface becomes fuzzy as the layers of meaning and intent are pealed away leaving one with the bare image, the image subject to interpretation that makes it interesting from the beginning. The bare image that conforms to no rules, is not subject to the restraints or commands placed on it by others, is thereby opened to a world of internalization by both photographer and observer that is, at once, the same and different.
But what about the notion of the twitch from the photographer’s experience. Shutters are released with a twitch of the finger. Decisions to release the shutter are made as a brain twitch. But the twitch is, in fact, a decisive action and not a random choice. Making photographs is about focusing one’s attention on one’s surroundings. Staring at that which is around us, at the light and shadow play, at the lay of the land. Focusing one’s gaze begins the process which is then honed by one’s willingness to explore, experiment with, encounter what is there. What is required is the commitment to the idea that one is never finished exploring a subject. This commitment to exploration is, then, that which focuses one’s twitch into productive action.
The bridge in this post is one of, perhaps, 20 views of the structure of this bridge in Western Illinois, another was posted a few days ago. Shot in the early morning on a clear day, the mixture of light and shadow play with one’s senses in the most delightful ways. One and done, the grave error of most amateur photographers, would never allow me to capture the essence of this bridge either from a structural posture or from an historical position. The anachronism of the covered bridge, the warning of how to move one’s beasts across the bridge, all come into play as the structural elements inside and out are brought into focus. The addition of electric lighting inside the bridge superstructure adds a touch of humor and the paranoia of our times. None of this detail would be forthcoming in a one and done shot.
One’s exploration of the object being photographed must continue until one is visually exhausted, even though one is certain that the exploration is incomplete. Seeing a project through from multiple angles, lens choices and exposures is what makes a photograph, or even a series of photographs, interesting in the end.
I spent about an hour by this covered bridge in Western Illinois. During that time I constantly was looking, walking around the area, schlepping both camera and tripod from here to there. I made about 2o exposures at an average exposure of 1/100th of a second. My hour of looking produced 2/1oths of a second of images; 2/10ths of a second and 2o twitches to expose 2o images out of an available 3600 seconds or 0.0056% of my available time was used to expose photographs. Or is it that I spent over 99% of my time seeing, seeking, and exploring in order to be able to make 2o images, 3 to 4 of which work? I will opt for the latter considering that time and experience that guides the twitch in the first place. What do you think?
The Covered Bridge No. 2 ~ Winter 2009 by Roger Passman, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
