Comments on readings for 9/17/07

I agree with Melissa that the Mekas article is a bit phony in how the discussion goes. Although I have to say that I find interesting that they seem to get stressed out about the fact that nothing is happening. They are dying to do something, anything while filming. And maybe that's the point. The Empire State building is there day and night. The light changes, the noise around it changes, we do different things around it on a daily basis but the building is still. Like a mountain it becomes the stable part in our otherwise hectic and changing lives.

In Cartier-Bresson's article about telling a story through pictures he describes some of the challenges a photographer faces on a daily basis. A photo is a selection of what we see. It's a selection of time and space. No one can or should try to capture everything but the challenge is to select the right composition at the right moment. I really liked his passage on p. 44 of the mental process to go through when the shot is not exactly what you wanted. "Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty?...etc." The second part for a picture story is the selection post production. I was surprised by how casual he describes the relationship to the "layout man" and the willingness to let someone else select the pictures for publishing and even cropping.

I have to admit that I've read Lazzlo Moholy-Nagy's article a few times now and except for parts of it and I can't follow his thought process. I will be happy to read other people's postings on this one.