On Nov 10, 2005, at 10:52 AM, Christian wrote:
You should read this month's Lenswork interview with Nick Grant
regarding his wildlife photos from Africa. He uses a Pentax 6x7
camera and gets in CLOSE. Patience and a tolerance for letting
the world do as it might is essential. His wildlife photos are
the only ones I've seen in recent years that really do the
subject justice, to my eye. All these "fit a 600mm telephoto and
bang a hundred shots off in 10 seconds" pictures are boring. His
technique allows the intimate expression of the animals to surface.
So I had to check out Nick Grant.. errr Brandt to see what he's
all about.
http://www.nickbrandt.com/
Sorry about the misspelling.
I agree with you about getting close to the subjects and I try to
do this in my own nature (bird) photography. After looking at
Brandt's photos, I must say that you and I have VERY different
ideas about photography and "doing the subjects justice" I don't
like his technique at all. I hate the soft edges; it reminds me of
glamour photos with a soft filter/lens. The soft focus (or post
processing; whatever it is) ruins otherwise very nice closeups/
portraits. I DO like the framing and composition of his wider
shots. In my opinion he is trying too hard to make his photos look
"vintage" and that bothers me; it isn't "genuine" and it makes it
look like he is trying to be something that he is not. Except for
the wide shots showing the animals and the sweeping vistas of their
environment, it doesn't (in my opinion) do them any justice.
Yes, we have very different ideas about photographic aesthetics.
I like the romantic/sensual feel he's put into them, they speak
mystery and 'life' to me, a certain level of abstraction and art
rather than just documentary. The are plenty of "straight" wildlife
photos that document the reality very well ... Like sunsets and
landscapes, very few of them hold my interest for more than a moment
or two.
Sometimes his vignetting is a bit heavy-handed, I agree, but overall
I like the series a lot. The printed images in Lenswork are much
nicer than these web resolution thumbnails, the book should be even
better. The thumbnails on that site are barely sharp enough to be
worth looking at.
Godfrey
