I don't like this photo. In Black and white it makes the valley look bleak and uninviting. Seen from the Rhigos Mountain road the views of this valley can be quite stunning.
Social comment isn't all about pretty pictures. Further down the same valley the youths who stole and burnt out the car stabbed a black male student at the small local University just because he was different, a month before I made the image.
This brings into question the motives for making images, do you take "Picture Postcard" type images that sell or make social comments that don't. I prefer to speak my mind through my images.
At least the commenter was honest enough to say something negative. A lot of people seem to have a really strong gut feeling that the *only* conceivable reason to make an image is "this looks pretty". I don't get where they're coming from, certainly, but there seem to be plenty of painters and photographers happy to oblige them, so I suppose it all works out.
I can't do "postcard" images as a rule. I greatly admire the abilities of people who can do it well, and especially those who can make visually strong, pretty pictures and *still* be communicating something beyond "this is pretty".
The trouble with "communicating" a message through pictures, is the interpretation of the picture is entirely up to the viewer. (I have seen people say--No, no you are no looking at it the right way--to which the viewer may respond from--how am I supposed to see it--to--I see it the way I want to see it.(People have the ability to do that with the written word, but it is not as easy.)
When I used to go hunting, a winter scene, that on a bright sunny day, makes one feel as if everything is right with the world, on a damp yet cold, stone grey day, can appear as if the world is devoid of life.
In black and white, how it is viewed, whether full of life, or stone cold dead, is strictly up to the viewer.
The particular picture below, simply reminds me of many valleys, my dad used to drive through while taking the "shortest" way through the mountains on vacation, neither good nor bad, simply familiar.(One thing about the off the maidnpath roads through the Rocky Mountains, wrecked and burnt out cars off the side of the road, were not rare.
Bob
This brings into question the motives for making images, do you take "Picture Postcard" type images that sell or make social comments that don't. I prefer to speak my mind through my images.
Ian
Hi Ian,
I can fully agree with your motivation for taking pictures. If this feels right for you, just do it. Pictures certainly don't need to be "pretty" to be of interest...
However, if I may put a more meaningful comment to your photo, if the car is of such interest to the story you are trying to tell, maybe it would be better to put it a bit more prominently in the picture. Also, the story will probably be best told if the picture is part of some kind of (journalistic) type of series of photographs... but maybe you are already working on that
I am partial to this type of photography. I have been criticized as shooting in a documentary style, to which I always respond "good". And for that reason when I see photography such this, the historian inside me screams "where's the loupe, bring me a loupe". These are the types of photographs (speaking of the original of course) that will be hanging in the local historical society museums hundreds of years in the future. They make excellent historical reference material.
The critic/commentator has personal knowledge of your particular scene, so you are already competing with their own perception and memory of what an image of that valley should look like. Being unfamiliar with that scene, I'm first most interested in the quality of the print (which is impossible on a monitor) and second, what is that thing in the foreground? After hearing the context, I find it quite compelling as an image.
I think the commenter was correct in what s/he saw - which is to him/her an unflattering view of the valley - with the "helpful" suggestion of where you can find a "better" venue.
Apparently, this person only viewed the photo as a kind of banal "postcard" - revealing more his/her individual perceptual limitations. You can never know what the thoughts were of other viewers who never commented.
I wouldn't spend too much time trying to fathom this person's rather shallow perspective of what you were trying to convey.
Living life through "Rose Tinted Spectacles" 
These are the types of photographs (speaking of the original of course) that will be hanging in the local historical society museums hundreds of years in the future. They make excellent historical reference material.
Linear Mode
