2019.08.05 - 08.19
Post date: Aug 11, 2019 5:16:20 PM
What does the photographer photograph?
Of course, it depends on the photographer you might say… A scene on the street, a mountainous landscape, an architecture detail… But I believe I am asking my question at a more abstract level. Does the photographer photograph what he has in front of his eyes or what he has inside his mind?
I took the six pictures I shared during the week in the glass-making workshop, at Quechee Vermont. What was in front of my eyes are captured in the last two pictures: a well-lit workspace full of stuff: not only the workers but their outfits, the benches, their tools, the products, some buckets, a water bottle, the fluorescent lights, of course, furnaces. But what I had in mind was a worker or two, their glassmaking gestures, body positions, their sweat, the heat of the furnace. Accordingly, I underexposed my pictures to the degree that the details were not visible and on sight were just those elements: the worker or workers, their gestures and the red light originating from the furnaces. During the post-processing, I emphasized further the darks and shadows using vignettes, filters, and maybe some other tools.
Not when I was taking the pictures, but when I was working on them at my computer that I came to realize that I was thinking of Eugene Smith’s steelworkers in Pittsburgh or Sebastio Saldago’s gold miners… When we photograph we photograph not only what we have in our minds, but also what we have in our hearts: the respect for working people, as an example, and the admiration for the masters who immortalized their work.
These photographs were made using the RAW files generated with a FUJIFILM X100T fixed lens camera. Film Simulation CLASSIC CHROME was applied during the post-processing despite the temptation to go with VELVIA.
Location:
Quechee, VT
You can these pictures on the following WEB sites:
FLICKR ALBUM: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/c0TBcM
GOOGLE PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SfLekd7dkTFSNteR6
More pictures I took at the same location can be seen in this FLICKR ALBUM: https://www.flickr.com/gp/aonart/x5k2x9
Additional information about the location: