Lost in Translation

Besides being a often abused cliché or the name of a popular movie I wanted to borrow this term to explain  one of the key reasons I have decided to put so much energy into my photography.  I think I am not alone for the core reason that inspired me. Feeling like a high school boy who proclaims that he really does have a girlfriend in a foreign country (typically Canada). I found myself traveling to all these wonderful places and coming home from these trips  trying to relate to disbelieving faces what I had seen.

I sought to prove that really the trip I had returned from was really as exciting and as wonderful as I had related.  Often times word pictures came off as wild exaggerations or really quite ho hum. So pictures became the “proof” see this … or look at that ... and it would show them. And this is when I came face to face with a new reality.  The pictures I took while they “showed something” they didn’t tell the story I thought. The images were flat, the people unremarkable and and the look overall was dull.

I was determined to do better and digital revolution came in time to save me from high film costs.  I  shot and shot and shot and  brought back a lot of pictures. I took a look at some film books but I really was on my own and rudderless.  The good that emerged from this period was that I brought back images that did show a lot but the “telling of the story” wasn’t there.  At this point I made the conscious decision that I was very uninterested in showing pictures of smiling faces planted in front  of something that I deemed was important.  Actually I was looking for pictures devoid of what I called “interruption of thoughts” or more colloquially people. I felt it took away from the “purity” of the scene.

The equipment kept getting better and I realized that just shooting a virtual downpour of photos no more guaranteed  a memorable than just a random shot.  So I started to sit down and really try to analyze what makes a shot something that  brings the story home.  After reading “Understanding Exposure” I could see the importance of a shot that was well lit and properly focused. And It felt like my pictures took a nice step forward.

Still it lacked something.  And I realized it as I looked through picture after picture that  while having my first slr the pictures definitely were better  they lacked  something very crucial…. They were boring, boring, boring and in my search for a better capture of the trip and what it meant to me I hadn’t really thought about composition. How do I arrange the elements in front of me in such a  way that the story of the trip was actually arousing interest.

So onward we pushed, sailing over seas of complacency. I really started to look at the elements of my pictures and how they worked to either tell a story of disguise the story from being seen. A little help from “The Photographer’s Eye” helped me get some of these basic components together.    It felt like something good was happening with the things I was seeing  but there was a certain detachment  in the images that I didn’t like.

So I kept reading. The Duchmin’s books made me realize that people are a part of the very realistic scene that was there. Instead of waiting for the people to leave the scene so I could capture it in its “pure” state I started to think if I want people  to see the real place I have to see it in its natural state complete with people and trash and all those things that make the place  breathe with real life.   This was exciting and enveloped my senses with life and imbued my images with something more.

Still I needed more I needed the pictures to have “soul”.  I wanted people to look at the picture and say  “I know how you felt when you took that.” The capture needs to be more than a technical achievement of light and proportion. It needs to tell a story instead of just show a scene. It needs to draw you in and fill you with more than a intellectual curiosity. I fully believe in a photojournalistic sensibility of reporting the scene as it existed. However more than reporting it needs to take you to that place and that time when you can smell the earth in your nostrils and feel the grass under your toes and are filled with a sense of wonder and mood. Yes my African-Asian- East European girlfriend maybe a continent away but I still want you  to know how wonderful she is and not get lost in the translation.