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| Psychedelic Shed Doors ©Lynne Buchanan |
The workshop I attended with Sam Abell at the Santa Fe
Workshops ended last Friday night. The five
days I spent with Sam not only helped me to improve my photography
and take it to the next step as advertised, it also changed the way I think
about and connect with life and my views towards people. This is not surprising, as one of his most
famous books is entitled A Photographic
Life. For Sam and for me,
photography is not about standing on the outside
looking in. It is about being all in,
with both your conscious and unconscious mind, responding, thinking and making
images that reflect your unique perspective on being alive at this moment in
time. Photography is the best way I have
found to connect with what is and express that emotional connection.
That being said, I realized towards the end of the week that
I have been excluding an entire realm of existence from my work––other human
beings and in fact any signs of the hand of man. Sam told us he began his career romanticizing
the American Landscape and would not show any power lines or unsightly
blemishes in his scenes. I would not
even show buildings, unless they were ruins indicating our powerlessness in the
face of the supreme power of Mother Nature.
On a hike up Sunrise Mountain one
morning, I had a profound realization regarding the dangers of overly
romanticizing life. I realized that
since I see and understand life through my photography, excluding this realm of
existence in my work means I am only partially connecting with humanity in my
life.
Will I completely jump ship and focus exclusively on Sam's idea of Modern
American Realism? I doubt it as
I still feel more connected with nature than things, but I now recognize that on a philosophical and
spiritual level I have been in denial that other people are here to
stay, and that the earth is not just inhabited by beautiful flowers and trees or the wonderful bison, grizzly
bears, elk and moose I photographed in the parks of Glacier, Yellowstone, and
the Grand Tetons. I also saw how sometimes
the hand of man creates things of beauty, even when they don’t appear that way
on the surface. Beautiful images can be
made when rigorous seeing helps organize the scene to create a meaningful
message, whether photographing pristine nature or man-made environments. And Perhaps, combining nature with aspects of modern civilization in my work can eventually point to a way we can establish a more harmonious mode of existence. I trust the philosophical
underpinnings will become more explicit as I step through this new doorway and delve into a more inclusive
photographic life.
I wish to thank Sam Abell and the Santa Fe Workshops for
creating the space where such profound exploration can take place. The workshop and my exposure to Sam and his
body of work exceeded all my expectations.
My fellow workshop participants were also incredible and everyone made
very compelling images. The synergy of
our seeing helped everyone achieve a higher level of photographic
understanding.
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| Sam Making a Point to Peter on Location in the Albuquerque Train Station ©Lynne Buchanan |
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