Some concepts are pretty tough to capture in words. Unless you’re talking about the music of Marvin Gaye or the immaterial essence said to survive a body, the notion of “soul” is a murky, often sentimentalized abstraction; e.g.: soul gaze, soul search, soul nature….
As for using dialogue to describe pictures, do your mighty best and you simply can’t–with words alone–do justice to the visual poetry of a well-executed photo. So, just to be willing to talk about the “soul” of image is an act of mad courage. Kudos to Dan Milnor, who, this past Sunday night, put his fine mind and rich experience to the task.
Dan spoke for about 40 minutes, addressing the experiences behind some of his photographs and offering a loose road map as to how to arrive at an authentic product.
His central point: that the soul of photography is more a function of what’s going on inside the photographer than what is out there to be shot. Attitude, approach, interaction–these are the elements that count, not the fancy equipment, spectacular vistas or celebrity subjects.
The key: to be present and yet invisible. “This might sound odd, but when I make pictures, sometimes I feel like I can disappear,” said Dan. I’ve had many clients say to me, while looking at my images, “I didn’t even see you there, didn’t even know you were there, next to me…..I think the soul of photography relates to the experience or the transition that happens when a photographer shelves every extra detail in his or her life and descends into the project.”
“When I work in the field, or anywhere else for that matter, much of what happens is based on trust, which as we know is harder and harder to come by. You don’t need to speak the language, or even speak at all, as the idea of who you are and what you do is either accepted or not.You can not only see this when working , you can feel it….”
Back to the folly of pursuing images with a net of speech. In the case of the good photo, the one that arises from and expresses soul, you may not be able to define or describe it, but like Potter Stewart, you “know it when you see it.” When Dan put the question to his friend, photographer Karen Kuehn, her matter-of-fact response was: “It’s in the middle.”
The middle: the tension between the photographer’s intention and the parameters of the shoot? The relationship between photographer and subject? You tell me.
The Soul of Photography, an exhibit of the work of eight locally affiliated photographers, runs through mid-April at the Bella Donna: seven condominiums located at 111 E. Santa Fe Avenue, listed by Joshua Maes and Malissa Kullberg. Artists receive 100% of the proceeds. For more information on these listings and full access to the MLS, visit our website at: SantaFeRealEstateDowntown.com.
