Reading and looking

Although I'd bought it a few weeks ago I had deliberately put off opening Joel Meyerowitz's Cape Light knowing that it's main subject matter is beaches. Eventually I cracked and began reading the interview that precedes teh photos, and in doing so I realised that photos taken in different places by different people at different times don't always resemble each other because works have been seen but because a similar subject affects people in similar ways. So I carried on to look at the photos.

Why this book passed me by before now I can on;y ascribe to the paucity of my college library when it came to photography. Many of what are now classic, seminal even, books of or about photography were in print back when I was a student, but they were not to be found easily. I guess that could also be seen as a reflection of how the art establishment thought of photography in the late 1970s and early '80s.

It's plain to see why Cape Light has been influential. It is very much a book about colour and light. Already it has given me pause for thought about what 'makes' a photograph. And although there are similarities with my beach photos there are enough differences for me to be unconcerned about repeating another's work.

Although the use of a 10x8 view camera is usually thought to change a photographer's way of working by making it slower and more considered, and to change the look of the images through both the film used and the slow shutter speeds and small apertures used, the simple matter of a change of format from the 3:2 ratio of 35mm film (or DSLR sensor) to 5:4 also gives the images a different feel. It must have an impact on the way a photographer sees.

Thanks to the miracles of modern technology I was able to alter my viewfinder ratio and give the 5;4 format a try. The difference was striking. A brief walk around the back garden revealed that I was looking in a different manner owing to the altered format. Something to explore further. No doubt there will be those who will ask, "Why not shoot in 3:2 and crop later?" Well, that way you are still looking in 3:2. It's the alternative way of looking that interests me.

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