New Vistas

I am out on the Olympic Peninsula this week for the first time with an intent to make photographs.

I am struck immediately with the question: How can anyone photograph an area they are visiting for the first time?

There are also those that try and replicate classic photos and scenes. This is not my thing however. In fact I set out to work the opposite of that. I would work on intimate landscape as a way to escape one set of visual cliches. (While no doubt falling victim in some instances to another set of visual cliches.)

For me this is a serious question and this visit to the Olympics really brings it home. I realize that I have done most of my ‘serious’ landscape photography in areas I have visited over an extended period of time. I think this dwelling in a place and having experienced or immersed oneself brings an insight to an area that helps in portraying visually the place or a feeling of place.

(The converse can also be true, that fresh eyes can reveal something the longtime observer has overlooked but for the moment that is not my concern here.)

I have discussed this with respect to Lake Pend Oreille which I have visited over many years on holiday and have been spending much longer periods of time over the last year. For differing technical reasons I find it challenging to photograph but also it is such a different and large subject it has taken some time to understand its moods.

The poet Mary Oliver says “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” And perhaps I would add “Devotion is the beginning of good photography”.

At least this is my truth. Immersion enriches my understanding of place and I think I eventually ‘figure the place out’ with respect to whatever my ‘style’ is.