Response to Stephen Shore interview

     After reading the interview between Stephen Shore and Luc Sante, I had a lot of new ways to think of photographs.  Stephen Shore introduces an idea about how a piece of paper has three dimensions, it is an object with an image embedded on it, which I had never thought about before.  

It was interesting when he was talking about framing and how the frame depends on what you are paying attention to.  It's different if you are taking a portrait of someone with a neutral background but if there is a lot going on in the background, that has to come into play when you are figuring out what to include in the photo.  

     Also when Shore is talking about forming a mental idea of what an image will look like.  An image that is in a photographers head, conscious or unconscious.  This made me think of my own experience and thought process.  I mostly don't like to plan out a photo unless I know I'll get exactly what i want.  I will make some small plans normally, but sometimes I'm let down if I come up with something in my head and I realize I won't be able to create it in a photo at that time.  As a photographer I also more often work with things I already see on a daily basis.  At this point in my photographing, more of my interest comes from what I will see everyday happen, without me instructing anything.  I love the beauty of normal interactions and sometimes being able to capture them at the right moment not looking like a boring snapshot, but something interesting.  

     I liked what they were both saying about the fear that there is nothing left to photograph, and young students always wondering if there is anything new.  Even though there was a time when photographers would go out to the West, for example, and come back to show this new area to people, it was new to them.  That doesn't mean that there aren't other new places to photograph.  There will always be new ideas, good and bad things happening in the world that will keep people motivated and inspired.  

     I like this photograph because it is a really interesting thing to look at, though you're not sure what you should be thinking about it or what you're even looking at.  You don't really know who or what to focus on, because there is just a man with his back the camera and a street with some parked cars, and some stores.  There isn't anything specifically happening but it is still a really interesting picture.  You wonder who the man is with his back to us, you wonder why there is a big leafless tree in the middle of a sidewalk, you wonder what city this was taken in, in what year.  Because there isn't really anything to understand or not understand about it.  I just think that sometimes its okay for a picture to just be a picture, there doesn't have to be a big explanation or a big issue exposed in it.  This specific photo can be seen as happy or sad.  I also really enjoy the colors in it, the yellows seem to pull you through the street, and the blue sky is faded, so it isn't too invasive.