Decay is a powerful visual metaphor for the extended passage of time. It is one of few pieces of subject matter that still photography can easily access to affirm that all things, and all people, must pass.
__________________ Photography, the word itself, invented and defined by its author Sir John.F.W.Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society, Somerset House, London. Quote "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..". unquote.
I'm not a LF photogrpaher just MF but I am drawn to the old and decrepit. Perhaps it my age? Ha! today we were driving around a lake nearby and came across a run down abandoned cottage and my husband started to stop, but I said no thanks, I'm trying to cut down!
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Prints available in the APUG GAllery
www.gaylarsonphotography.com
Artists in the late 18th and early 19th century -- especially the "Romanticists" -- were very drawn to ruins of all kinds. Ruins have held a special fascination for people and especially for artists for a very long time. The reasons behind this have to do with the search for immortality, hoping traces of us will remain behind long after we're gone so people will remember what we did, and the whole idea that nature will ultimately reclaim what man builds and produces. Ruins that are covered in vines and other natural matter are far more interesting to the painter and photographer than the well-maintained ruins we have today at "historical sites" around the world. That mix of man's production with nature's reclamation strikes a chord in the human psyche that needs expression.
For photographers, ancient ruins, old houses, cemeteries, rusting cars, abandoned factories, and even dead creatures have been of interest since Day One when photography was discovered. There is simply something in human soul that finds a connection with the past and somehow sees a connection to "those who have gone before" through ruins and decay.
I think this is a very elemental spiritual/emotional/psychological phenomenon we cannot escape. Interested to hear other thoughts as well!
Artists in the late 18th and early 19th century -- especially the "Romanticists" -- were very drawn to ruins of all kinds. Ruins have held a special fascination for people and especially for artists for a very long time. ...
Wandering through the museums and galleries of Genova last week, I saw several paintings of ruins and decay. Those were not 18th century, but early 17th and 16th!
The thought struck me that this might have something to do with the "decrepit barn school of photography". After all, large parts of the world are not exactly full of decrepit castles and cathedrals...
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-- Ole Tjugen, Luddite Elitist Norway
I was going to say texture but it was already mentioned. Ole is right, in the museums of Paris I saw a lot of paintings with ruins in them. It must be an age old theme. I think with photography the texture and the light and shadow are the draw.
Have you come to deny the subject, passing it off like a fleeting thought; or, do you mean to say that "decay" as a persistent subject of photographers is mere happen-stance of their equipment and location?...
Oh, nothing as complicated as all that. Just that our minds, once we start our second half of our lives (if not sooner!), identify with the process of decay...they sense the decay within themselves. Some minds, in self-defence, might deny the simularity and photograph young nude women instead. Other minds sense a kinship to the many signs of decay and naturally fall to photographing those signs.
Other minds think I am full of shit. Who am I to say they are wrong?
Looking for beauty in the weathered buildings or human faces, or old trees & driftwood is an antidote to living in a society/culture that worships youth, that sees beauty in only the new. Its a recognition that character develops with age. Its like looking at a garden - during summer we are overwhelmed with all the color of the flowers but during the winter we can see the pattern of a garden, its design, its character.
Linear Mode
