In her deeply intellectual, but rewarding book ‘On Photography’ , Susan Sontag writes: ‘Nobody ever discovered ugliness through photographs. But many, through photographs, have discovered beauty. ……what moves people to take photographs is finding something beautiful. Nobody exclaims, “Isn’t that ugly! I must take a photograph of it.” Even if someone did say that, all it would mean is: “I find that ugly thing…..beautiful”.
This truth is common to most photographers, and it certainly applies to me.
I have been taking photographs since I got a Brownie 127 around the age of 9. My brother, John, being 3 years older, taught me how, when I reached my early teens, to do my own developing and printing. Like him, I had expensive tastes, and bought a Leica M2 when I was 18. By then, the fundamentals of photography were clear to me - you could even, without a meter, make a pretty good guess at the correct exposure.
Now, many decades later, and after a career in architecture, I am trying to start up a very modest little photographic business, concentrating mostly on landscapes. About 20 months ago I bought a Canon 5D and several L-series zoom lenses, and this equipment (in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) has proved a revelation to me…….you attempt shots that you would not even consider with a film camera. And it costs you nothing!
So anyway, here I am just starting out, and already I suspect that I will turn out to be a much better photographer than a business person. But to achieve some artistic self-expression is much better for the soul perhaps, than making a pile of money out of photographing wedding couples or pink poodles?
In his excellent article (Amateur Photographer 22-29 December 2007), ‘Back to Black & White’, Charlie Waite, says, ..’once you feel you’ve achieved perfection, you’re finished - any creative endeavour should be accompanied by a degree of insecurity.’ I strongly empathise with that sentiment. However, that same insecurity can sometimes overwhelm us, and lead us to ask the question, ‘am I really any good at this, am I just wasting my time?’ So, through this website (I still need to sort out the ‘imagekind’ link), I have found myself so delighted to hear words of praise (through the Flickr link on my site) for my photographs from total strangers. How encouraging! And how wonderful to find that same excitement, often when the light is special, as I press the shutter, that I did when I was a teenager. An old guy still having fun!
So enough with words…..please take a look at my stuff and see what you think.
You can contact me by email at alanguthie@gmail.com
