Picturesque
This photograph is pretty decent from a technical perspective. It’s well exposed and everything is in focus. The composition is classically pleasing and there is a nice sense of light in the image. And I absolutely hate it.
“picturesque |ˌpik ch əˈresk|
adjective
visually attractive, esp. in a quaint or pretty style : the picturesque covered bridges of New England.”
At this point, I have a pretty good sense of how to use my camera. I know how to pull a composition together. But this photograph honestly belongs in a kiosk at the mall. I have no use for picturesque.
I guess it’s good to know what you don’t like, though, right? I feel like the more pictures I take, the closer I am to figuring out what I am actually looking for. I am trying to create a world, and within that world, a series of stories. I think it’s fine if that world is a bit romantic and exaggerated; that’s part of the point. But it’s dangerous to get too carried away with those elements and forget about the other things about my photographs that excite me. A landscape needs to be a little bit mysterious, maybe even scary. There need to be hints as to the reasons why the landscape is the way it is. And there need to be questions that remain unanswered.
In this case, I feel like I’ve wandered into a hidden valley in the English countryside and I’m about to be introduced to a bunch of magical faeries. Ugh.
May 19, 2008