Denver – Around the Edges

This is primarily a piece about photography.  The subject in this case, is the context in which we worked.  When I was immersing myself more thoroughly into the world of the camera, one photographer who was a strong influence on my evolving style, was William Albert Allard.  Basically he was a very creative photo-journalist, who presented his work through National Geographic.  Not only did I learn from his images that displayed a vibrant interplay between vibrant color and shadow, much of his photographic philosophy guides me to this day.  And that’s basically the subject of today’s post.

I realize you many of you are not photographers per say, at least, not in a serious sense, but perhaps you’ll enjoy this somewhat and the images that came from that place.  In this case, the Bill Allard quote that comes to mind is the following:

“I think the best pictures are often on the edges of the situation, I don’t find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges.”

In my case, thinking back about Denver, the one difference is that I don’t think of the following images as being more interesting than those of the “Clayground” project, but they do have their own particular “stand alone” uniqueness.  So as a compliment to the images I’ve posted about the project, I’m going to share with a number of those kinds of images I took while in Denver, the world that evolved around us while working there.

Once again, these are all iPhone images, the device for which my appreciation grows on a daily basis.  It occurred to me today that the way most of us perceive digital images is very limited.  The common tendency is to immediately want to count megapixels and camera quality.  True, these are important, but I think we need to look at these types of images in a very different light.  The iPhone photos, which in terms of camera quality, truly exceed that of other smart phones.  However, the iPhone photos are very much a product of an additional factor that has little to do with camera quality and that would be the apps that are available to process the photos on the iPhone or iPad, they work on either one.  So what you get in the end is an image that is a combination of camera quality and the app(s).  In my mind, that’s huge, because what we are really concerned with is the impact of the final product and the iPhone provides something that is not possible with a traditional camera be it film or digital, it is much more emotional and personal.

I have to admit, I’m in the exploratory phases of utilizing this thing and for the most part I don’t know what I’m doing, but one thing is for sure, I’m having a whole lot of fun in the process.  There’s one more thing I ought to mention and that is it becomes a lot easier to involve others in the process of capturing a given subject.  Instead of simply having one person involved in the photographic experience, it is a much more inclusive process.

I leave you with another Allard quote that is somewhat obvious, but as you will see, is very much at the heart of how I work.

“Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone.”

So below is a sampling of what you might call, “Marvelous Mud – Around the Edges.”

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2 Comments

  1. Finally catching up on past issues of The Canelo Chronicles. I’m a big fan of William Albert Allard too Bill. His vivid colors and the way he pushed the limits of what photography could do had a big influence on me. Love your stories and pictures. Keep up the good work.

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