Joys of the print.

The above image is a simple one, but one I hold dear for a three reasons;
Firstly it was my first colour image made with a large format camera. Second to this, it was made in the grounds of my old school, a place where I first learned how to process and print a photograph.  And finally it was this image that prompted me to come up with the term Doyle Blue in relation to the twilight colour of the sky. Despite my efforts to pass off the colour Doyle blue on Wikipedia, which lasted a whole three weeks, I was unable to convince anyone that this was a real thing, but it is..

Anyways, the real reason I decided to blog about this image is all down to a recent print sale of, the White Picket Fence. As we are now in a digital era I had to did out the negative, scan it, and then print it. Not unusual of course but it got me thinking that a digital image really has no value unless its printed. All those millions of virtual images on hard drives, computers and phones are all utterly worthless, until that is, they are printed. Only then can we hold it, sign it, and give it some value. I am of course writing from a fine art perspective, but its something I have not really thought about too much as it just makes me a bit sad.

A fondness for the cold and wet.

Despite moving to a warmer, drier climate, I do strangely miss the always cold, and always wet coastline of the UK.
Its almost ten years since my North Shores project (later becoming By Coastal), whereupon I spent months touting a large view camera up and down the coastline looking for material to shoot. I was constantly cold, wet and angry, but despite this I still look back to that time with great fondness.

The Journey.

Me and Pudding getting down to business Feb 2018

For me photography has always been about the journey. By this I don't mean the journey of life (or perhaps I do), but more the journey to a place. The anticipation, taking in whats around you, and finally arriving at a place are all things I enjoy. Whether or not I make any images is another matter, but these days it becomes less important. Having said that, there's nothing like finding little gems like this old station wagon parked in the desert..

Its not what you show, its what you let them know..

I am often asked, What makes a good photograph?
There was a time I could of answered such a question, but these days I am not so sure.
When I look through my semi-vast photography book collection, those photographers I used to be inspired by, and admired just don't do it for me anymore. Its not that their work is dated, far from it, or that my tastes have changed (I still shoot in the content I was shooting twenty years ago). I just question now; Was the work that I thought was good actually that good?
Many years ago a very good friends father, a travel photographer, told me;

Friends Father;

"If you have a bunch of photographs that are not very good, before you show someone, tell them they are good and they will believe you. Then when you do show them, even if they are not good, they will still think they are good.."

Young Marcus; 

But how is that possible?

Friends Father;

"Because it's not what you show, its what you let them know."

Of course this isn't full proof. But often people do believe what they want to hear and convince themselves something is lovely and amazing, when actually it may not be.

So maybe the work wasn't that once inspired wasn't that good. Maybe it was and my tastes have just changed. but what I do know is that  I have an amazing project I am working on and the images well there are just the best ever..!