The Limitations Of Photography

[poliphilo]

"The trouble with photography," says David Hockney. "Is it's so flat". I've been thinking that over for the past few days- and it really came home to me yesterday when we were at Hampton Court and I was taking pictures in the gardens. After a while I gave up. What I was trying to capture was the scale of the place- of the distance from A to B and the immense volume and depth of the empty air above and around- and it soon became clear that I was getting none of it. With photography you're arranging flat shapes on a flat surface. It's very like doing collage

I mean, look at this. Standing in that space was thrilling, but the picture is just dull, dull, dull...

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Dear God -- are those yews?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They certainly are.

Some of them are quite old. I think this section of the garden was laid out in the late 17th century- for William and Mary.