Rational Insanity
Photographs
Yes, I said I would be writing about Judi Dench this week, but some things happened over the week that changed my mind about this week's topic.
As you all know, the past week was Sinadya sa Halaran Week in Roxas City, and being one of the organizers, I was in the thick of most of the preparations and activities.With so many guests coming to Roxas City, it is not surprising that many people, armed with their cameras, digital or otherwise, turned the venues into electrical storms.What I don't understand about some people is their propensity to take shots of celebrities without themselves being in the picture - what are these photographs in comparison to those that are sold in the "banketa"?I understand that some people have their own weird objectives.Photographs have to be worth something.With my dabbling into photography, I have always considered people being a vital element in any picture.Sure, there are photographs of landscapes and non-living things, but to me, those featuring people are the ones that serve photography's purpose the most.Which brings me back to people who keep on taking pictures of celebrities without themselves or someone special like their family or friends included in the picture with the celebrity - these pictures, notwithstanding the worthless achievement of immortalizing a person who is already immortalized in the broadsheets and magazines, do not capture any sort of memory.While pictures of landscapes and non-living things monumentally represent the photographers talent in bringing to life these things, they are no more than mere documentations for me.I believe that a photograph is a tangible representation of emotion and what better way to materialize emotion than to show the actual source of it - people.This is the reason why I favor photographswith people in them:a sunset with the silhouette of a mother and a child playing in the water, an unfinished building with a construction worker eating his lunch up in the rafters, a busy marketplace with a vendor playing solitaire while marketgoers pass by and ask about his wares - all these are scenes that show the irony that real life is all about.
Life is an irony in itself and it is a great achievement for anybody to be able to render that irony tangible.This is the reason for the success of many poets, fictionists, painters, and photographers, artists in general.Admittedly, the ability to capture life's ironies in the menial and meager mediums that are available to our artists is like putting the sea into a glass.There is no artistic medium that can accurately represent the ironies that life is riddled with, but for any artist in particular, the greatest achievement would be to capture these ironies in the most accurate means possible with whatever medium is available.
While photography is a medium that almost anyone with an artistic eye can use, it is also the faultiest of all mediums considering the convenience at which it could be used.However, this ease of utilization does not exempt the artists from foregoing the most important element of artistry, the paradoxes and the ironies of life.True, there is such a thing called commercial photography - pictures of weddings, funerals, etc., and true also, most people expecting to see commercial photos would not readily appreciate artistry in photography when this is not what they want to see; again, there is nothing wrong with commercial photography, and trust me, rare are commercial photographers who are at the same time keen with the artistic elements of photography.
I believe that photography as an artform should be no less than the other art forms like literature, performing arts, and the rest.Absolutely nothing in this world exempts artists from setting the same standard in their work found in those of the masters.Mediocrity in artistry cannot be justified - there is no excuse for artless art, period.
Be rational; be insane...every once in a while!!!TTFN!
Next week naman greetings ah, I love you all!