I heard an interesting discussion on the radiogram this morning which I think had some validity as an argument; the discussion point was whether it was possible to compare the likes of the singer/songwriter Bob Dylan with the literary/poetic giant John Keats. Popular music of the 20th Century is often much maligned, it being regarded as trivial or even disposable especially when compared to the classical literary heavy weights but we are looking on the later with rather different eyes. Keats was 26 when he died, a similar age to Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and even more recently Amy Winehouse so it’s not as if he was any more worldly wise than these contemporaries – in fact he would have had a much more blinkered view of the world, access to modern forms of media being denied to him (and others of his genre of course). I’m not dismissing his works, far from it, it’s just we tend to give more gravitas to things from the past as “classics” rather than just treating them as things of their day (which have lasted, I’ll grant you). After all, when Mozart was composing his works in the late 1700s, he wasn’t trying to intellectualize his music – I remember hearing a quote of his, which said that he knew when he’d written a good piece of music if he heard a cabbie whistling one of his tunes. I probably haven’t reasoned that out sufficiently, Dear Reader, but that’s all you’re getting for today on this subject.
The basis for this diatribe started much earlier than that radio program though – having gone for an early morning swim at 6.30am, I made sure I had my camera with me for the journey back so that I could take advantage of the sun as it rose into the firmament. My first port of call was to the local church; I had wanted to take a picture of the sun rising behind the church but as I had only brought my 17-40mm I didn’t have the ability to get a shot from an alternate lane that would provide the necessary angle to achieve the image I had in mind. Thirty minutes later, and a slightly artier shot of a coppiced tree got me thinking about the definition of Art again. Of course Art is what ever Tracey Emin says it is, but that’s the same for music, photographs, paintings, sculptures – it’s all subjective.. apart from my stuff which of course is High Art (I’ve put it up on a shelf using a step ladder).
I’m going to try more of these types of photos over the next few weeks, I’ve been rather remiss with my landscape photography and I need to develop it further – anything to keep my skills with a camera progressing (or rather stop it from stagnating).
I can’t let today go past without mentioned a rather impressive milestone that was reached today.. but not by me… my boy (who is still in single figures, age wise) swam 3000m last night (non-stop) – that’s almost 2 miles in old money. Much praise and Kudos to him…. makes the 650m I saw at the beginning of the day seem rather paltry (as opposed to Poultry, that would be completely different) – and I had to wear arm bands!
Andrew Skelton: 
Perfect composition.
By: Paolo Photographer on 18/12/2011
at 5:56 pm