What constitutes a favourite?
3 August, 2011 in Art, People, Places
We all have favourite things in our lives… clothes, cars, places, etc. but the question I’d like an answer to is, what makes something special enough for it to become one of your favourite things?
Henri Cartier-Bresson's Paris
For me favourite things fall into specific categories, especially where images are concerned. A photograph that is sublimely composed for instance, or one that leaps out of the frame thanks to some stunning content… I’m thinking about images by other photographers here, like this one by Henri Cartier-Bresson from his Paris Studies.
Napalm Girl by Huynh Cong ‘Nick’ Ut
Or this one by Huynh Cong ‘Nick’ Ut who in June 1972 took the iconic image of 9 year old Kim Phuc fleeing her village after a napalm attack by American bombers.
Ansel Adams, from Landscapes Of The American West
Or then again any one of perhaps a hundred images by the wonderful Ansel Adams who photographed the raw beauty of America and the American peoples like no-one either before or since.
I wish I had just a little of the talent of photographic artists like these.
When it comes to my own images I tend to be hyper-critical and while I am happy to post various ‘snaps’ here there are very few that I really, really, like.
That said I do have more than a few photographs that are poorly composed, badly framed, ill-lit and generally second rate, that despite their faults I really do like. Some have happened ‘by accident’ so to speak, others have been deliberately taken with knowledge afore-hand that they will not satisfy artistically, but will be pleasing to the eye anyway… one such is this one:
Sunrise at East Looe
It was early morning… well before 6:00am anyway… and I’d left my tripod at the hotel, so used a handy railing to steady the camera as best I could while I shot a series of quite long exposures to capture the sun rising out of the water. It would have been so much easier with the camera securely mounted, but I knew I’d miss the shot if I went back to the hotel to get the tripod so I just crossed my fingers and hoped… this is the best of that series… I love the gentle colours and the rocks in silhouette. The image is far from perfect, but it graces my wall as a 33″ x 24″ mounted print and never fails to illicit a comment from first-time viewers.
I guess it just goes to prove, some things don’t have to be perfect to be a firm favourite. 
