Comments on: Cleverness, the Gold Curse

By: Nils Jorgensen

Nils Jorgensen — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:50:36 +0000

Thanks for another good read.

By: hool

hool — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:55:12 +0000

a photograph that is only clever is limited to showing only the cleverness of the photographer. i agree, they’re hard to resist, but after you’ve shot them a few times, you see how easy it is to find them. they’re everywhere.

it’s especially easy to make clever photographs by juxtaposing a person with an advertisement, because ads are ubiquitous on the street. i think making clever photos is a natural step in drawing visual relationships between elements in an image, but they quickly exhaust their usefulness.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 22:43:41 +0000

Funny, I actually saw the grey haired man this past weekend, where he works. Gotta make him a print!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:31:25 +0000

Michael,
We’d all like to hit some “grand slams”, like the picture in Minamata where the mother bathes her child. (this is unlikely if shooting on the street) In a few years the picture of the silver haired gentlemen you chased down will probably be hanging in some gallery or museum, and then you’ll realize that you did hit one over a tall fence, even if the bases were empty…

By: admin

admin — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:37:50 +0000

Updated entry to fix a typo.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:36:25 +0000

Just updated this entry with two more examples of my own. Don’t feel right about linking to other people’s stuff (save for the guys who can take it) but I thought it would help to show a few more examples.

Matt - Don’t get me wrong, I like clever pics. What I was trying to get at is that any kind of happiness I get from them is limited. I’m starting to think of them as a form. You (the proverbial “you”) do what it takes to satisfy the form and you’re done. You’ve satisfied the goal of taking a clever photo, but you haven’t gone above and beyond. (The “triple crown” from the phylums post.)

I like thinking about boundaries, borders and limits — of anything — and I think clever photographs are a clearly delineated subset of street photography (whatever that is!).

They like to play in the backlot of the street photography house and they have a blast back there, but the lot has a really high fence around it. I like to join ‘em, but I like kicking the fence a bit and wondering where the weak spots are.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:20:35 +0000

Very interesting, but here’s my view:

Not clever may be a curse, but very clever is like gold, cause it’s pretty rare. The Erwitt & the Friedlanders are pictures most photographers would be pretty happy taking. I think that you’ve taken a few pictures lately which are much more clever than the one of the guy looking up at the sign. You should still be happy with them! I agree that trying to be clever and not quite succeeding, is very frustrating and does leave me feeling cheap.
The images that don’t wither away quickly, should still be fun to look at years from now, and thus very worthwhile…