Friday, May 20, 2011

On Memory, Mood, and Manipulation





Here in Coastal Maine, as anyone will tell you, we haven't really had a spring this year.  It has been cold. Period. We've had a few hours of glorious sunshine, but not the kind of slow, golden afternoons that warm your bones after a long winter.  And mostly we've had more than our fair share of rain, clouds, fog, drizzle, and mizzle.  I took these photos in Falmouth down at the town landing on a rare sunny afternoon, and then I processed them to look a little like 1970's postcards.  I always loved the overly saturated colors of postcards when I was a kid.  They were like real life, only in Technicolor.  

The sky on the day I took these wasn't actually very blue.  It was more the slightly bluish-white of bone china.  The shades of blue you see here I added, which made me feel deceitful, but also a little god-like.  There were people at the landing on that day: a mother playing with her young daughter, a woman beach combing, a fisherman in his boat, several men on a building site.  I avoided capturing any of them in these shots because I wanted the images to feel a bit lonely and moody.  

Photography, like writing, is a manipulative art form.  When I teach writing to students (which I do a lot of, if you are ever looking for a writing tutor or coach), I like to remind them that to write is to manipulate the perception of the reader.  Since you have total control over what to emphasize and what to downplay as well as what to reveal to and what to conceal from the reader, you should think of it very much like how a photographer thinks of framing and processing a photograph.  Everything--point of view, color, texture, mood, light, and so much more--is in your hands.  What a thrill . . . and a responsibility.

Because my whole life is wrapped up in writing--and has been for a very long time--I think about small details everywhere I go.  I look at the angle of a rooftop, consider the shape of puddle, and note the hemline of a woman's dress.  No, that is an understatement.  I obsess about these things.  And now that I am an enthusiastic amateur photographer (who is beginning to get a few paying gigs), I obsess about such details even more than before.  It's a lousy habit if one is to accomplish practical tasks, but it's a glorious habit if one is to craft anything of beauty or even interest.  Ah, and that's just it.  I didn't want to make these particular photographs beautiful exactly.  I wanted to make them capture a certain mood, a certain angle of light and memory from about 1975.  That memory isn't pretty or picturesque so much as it's intensely saturated, scrubbed with bright white sunlight, slightly blurred, and more than a little lonely.  But lonely in a way that I rather enjoyed that spring when I was eight years old--and still enjoy now all these decades later.

16 comments:

  1. You are a woman of many talents Gigi, you have photographically captured the mood you descibe. Wonderful. We finally have a day of sunshine here, everyone is out walking and planting flowers. It is like a beehive of activity..........finally! Enjoy the weekend. Much love XO

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  2. Hello Gigi:
    How sad for you that spring appears to have deserted your shores having, quite clearly, blown itself across the Atlantic to come to rest in our landlocked country where, windows open wide, the evening sun lights our rooms and warms our hearts.

    Your 1970s style postcards resonate with those days of, as you say, saturated colour. For us, best captured some years earlier in the 'glorious technicolour' [for such it was advertised in a grey, post war Britain] of 'South Pacific' where Mitzi Gaynor sang her heart out on a sun drenched beach to whichever GIs happened to be around!

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  3. Beautiful photos as usual, Gigi...it is so fascinating to read your words, the way you describe everything is fabulous! Happy weekend, sweet Gigi! xxoo :)

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  4. Hey Gigi, you really did capture what you set out to in your images, very beautiful and moody.
    As far as the weather goes, I could have written your first paragraph from here ... still cold, still cloudy and rainy.
    Thanks, as always, for sharing.

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  5. Being a passionate newbie in amateur photography I have recently noticed how obsessive I get with details and wanting to convey a mood in my photographs. I need now to learn to apply it in my writing ;-)

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  6. Hi Gigi,
    Well you certainly achieved your goal with the photos! They are exactly as you wanted, all but the last one of the tree evoked a strong memory of my childhood, stopping at places like these on the Sunday drive, getting out and being told to run around then back in the car looking for another stop. The tree makes me sigh, it is so beautiful.Thank you.
    Vickixx

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  7. Gigi, you inspire me.

    This is so beautifully written and thought provoking. Thank you for being you and for sharing yourself with us.

    Angela x

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  8. Beautiful photos Gigi...evocative in every way... Your words about photography and writing really struck me deeply ...perhaps you should write a book about photography?

    And Yay about the paying gigs!

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  9. Beautiful photos. Oh, a trip to Maine is much needed. It's so pretty and like no other place. Have a wonderful weekend. xo

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  10. Lovely entry as always, Gigi. You are infused by Maine...you should write a textbook titled "Writing the Maine Way" or "How to Get There from Here in your Writing". I'd assign it.

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  11. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos and words. Yes, they do create what the artist wanted. That is part of the artistry of both words and photos.

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  12. Your posts are a revealation for me in so many ways. Even though I'm the other side of seventy, I'm learning all the time. Thank you for your inspiration.

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  13. Writing and photography go hand in hand don't they? Oh, that careful attention to detail...it makes the world such a rich place.

    ....and cold! It has been unusually cold here on the west coast as well! What's up with that?

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  14. Being focused on the little details is one of the joys of life, I think. It means you stop and really take notice. Most people don't - and how much they miss. These photos are beautiful because they capture the mood so perfectly. Your words and photos are always uplifting, thoughtful and the perfect reminder to stop, linger and enjoy the beauty all around us.

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  15. And that's it. Right there. Just exactly why writing and photography seem to go so hand in hand.

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