Seeing the World Softly

This month you will see a new portfolio of soft focus images on the web site. This work is quite a change for me. Although Fredrick Evans was my earliest inspiration in photography, I emulated the work of modernists: Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Minor White. In the beginning, I was an f/64 guy, using view cameras, making silver prints, and always seeking the sharpest lens available. Yet tucked away in the dark corners of my bookcases were books by a few Pictorialists: Alvin Langdon Coburn, F. Holland Day, and Laura Gilpin. Drawn to make platinum prints like Evans I gradually began to separate from the f/64 aesthetic, and eventually began to make only platinum prints. For the past eight years I have been working more frequently with soft focus lenses, discovering each of their strengths and weaknesses, and learning to take better advantage of the individual characteristics of each.

As I became more familiar with the “look” of these images, I began to discover more and more soft focus images mixed among the photographers of the f/64 group. My own education of this subject has been greatly enhanced by my friend, Russ Young, wrote his (PhD) thesis on these lenses and the image-makers who utilized them. Several years ago, learning to use my first soft focus lens, I made some awful images. To get a better handle on the situation I started to shoot many of my images with both a soft focus as well as a traditional lens. Eventually I began to see the different way the individual lenses “saw” and I began to recognize situations in which the use of the soft focus lens made the image I liked best. This experience gave me hope that (maybe) I was beginning to figure out this soft focus stuff. I even “slipped” one such image into Odin Stone and a few more in A Walk Along the Jordan.

Soft focus lenses were a late addition to the history of lens design. The sharpest of the lenses that we use today are based on research and designs from the late 19th century. Soft focus lenses were first created around the turn of the 20th century. Photographers asked lens designers to create a lens that gave a softer, rounder look, reacting “against the flood of unexceptional and easy photographs enabled by the technical advances of the 1880′s… innovations such as the dry plate hand held camera, flexible roll film, as well as improved camera design and optical sharpness made camera work available to a larger group of amateurs whose primary concern was the graphic recording of information.” (The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, Zakia and Stroebel, 3rd edition, 1993.) Maybe I was beginning to react in a similar way.

Soft focus lenses work in two ways, by chromatic and/or spherical aberrations. Some lenses use both and some use one or the other. There are some specific qualities to soft focus lenses. They are always either of a normal or a slightly longer focal length. There are no wide-angle soft focus lenses. All soft focus lenses are at their softest wide open and sharpen up as the lens is stopped down. The best soft focus images have a strong sense of definition of subject matter, but will often create a glow or halo around lighter area of the image. It is a different look than an image that is simply out of focus, or even an image with a lack of depth of field enough to delineate foreground and background. The subject is clearly identified and the background is less defined allowing the subject to standout from the chaos behind it.

Frederick Evans responded to a letter in which Coburn charged that he lacked imagination when it came to new ways of seeing and evolving personal vision: “Mr. Coburn mistakes… my attitudes towards cathedral photography if he imagines I am content with retreading the same old ground in the same old way. If I were younger and deeper in pocket, I would start afresh and take cathedrals new to me (Spain for choice) and abandon my hard and fast anastigmats and work with soft-focus lenses for their pencil like round edge effects. I believe a wholly new joy in architectural photography is possible here, seeking mainly for the fully lighted and richly shadowed effects. The imagination I am accused of not being cursed (blessed?) with rises in ecstatic joy at the mere thought of these unexplored fields of sane art… Let me commend this new work to the younger generation, who prefer good work to mere publicity.” (British Journal of Photography, March 23, 1917, p. 155; as quoted in Frederick Evans, Beaumont Newhall, An Aperture Monograph, U.S., 1973.)

Perhaps I am getting softer in my outlook as I add to my own new ways of seeing. I hope you enjoy this new portfolio and the images I will add in the future.

All the best,
Tillman

Opportunity = Choice

Early this summer I had an unusual experience.  I scheduled a few days to photograph with a student I had worked with a number of years ago. He was retired, an avid photographer, rekindling his passion for working with his view camera, and he was recovering from a stroke. I spoke with him about what he wanted to photograph and with his wife about his physical limitations. It was agreed that with me as “assistant,” Fort Knox and the Olson House would be good locations for us to focus on. We had a great first day shooting. The weather was perfect, we enjoyed catching up through a day of leisurely conversations and when I dropped him off at the hotel for dinner with his wife he was tired but happy. His wife called me at 6:30 the next morning to say that he had suffereda massive stroke in the night and was dying.

Although he was not my closest friend, we were well acquainted, having worked together several times over the years as well as spending the entire previous day photographing. So, his death struck close to home. Thinking about the events of that week I’ve had a few thoughts…

Life is short. We never know when the end of our days is coming. This friend’s death reminded me of this truth. His determination to make photographs made it possible for him to spend his last day of life as a photographer. He chose to put making photographs before anything else on his “to do” list. Over the years I have learned that if I don’t go out and make new photographs at every opportunity I will spend my life talking about work that I did further and further in the past. Opportunity = Choice. I make my opportunities every day, making the choice to photograph rather than doing other things. Every day brings new choices, new opportunities for how I spend my time. I hope that the drive and determination to make photographs stays with me until my own last day is spent.

I can’t spend each day behaving as if it is the last day of my life. That means I can’t just photograph all day, every day. I also have to take care of the routine and mundane details that make it possible for me to photograph. I have to make time for the people and other things in my life that are important to me. I value being a part of a family, having friends, being involved in my community. I am a lucky man to be able to spend weeks at a time making photographs, but these are balanced out by time spent in my darkroom, in the office and in the classroom teaching. If I spend every day doing just what I want, justifying my actions because “it might be my last day” then everything that makes it possible to photograph will disappear and in the end I won’t be able to make photographs. Furthermore, always living on the edge of life being over doesn’t leave much room for being open to life’s possibilities. In fact, it seems a pretty “glass half empty” way of living.

So how do I combine these nearly opposite dictums? Every day I try to take care of what is important to me, with an eye towards the future. I tell the people I love that I love them, every day. Every day I try to follow my passion and figure out a way to make a living out of that passion. By planning, I make it possible to follow my dreams into the future. I plan workshops, photo projects, and schedule time in the darkroom. When I’m not out photographing I take care of business, answer phone calls and emails, prepare for upcoming workshops, reworking them from the experiences gained by teaching them. I make time for my family, make the effort to get regular exercise, keep in touch with friends. Every day I try to do the little things that keep my life balanced.

By planning for the future I take care of the present. By keeping in touch with those who are important to me I stay grounded, and by making time for my photography I follow my passion. I may not be able to spend my last day on earth making photographs, but if I have made photographs whenever possible, planned for the future, and told those I love I love them, then when my last day comes I will, hopefully, have no regrets.

Follow your passion. Take care of the everyday things that allow you to do this and tell those you love that you love them.

All the best,

Tillman

I have been repeatedly invited to be a “friend” on Facebook and consistently decline the opportunity. The subject came up again at a recent photographers’ retreat in New Jersey with the conversation focused on the wonderful marketing tool it was. Though the discussion was lively and instructional it only served to reinforce my position on Facebook.

Instant Reaction

I am drawn to well thought out ideas and arguments. I read newspapers and magazines and follow many online sources for content about the world around me. Each morning I read the editorials and commentaries in my local newspaper. Liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter. George Will or Ellen Goodman, with opposing opinions, provide me the opportunity to think outside my box. Both write columns that are intelligent, well researched and thoughtful about their subjects. Facebook seems to approach communication from just the opposite – instant thoughts and instant feedback. For myself, I just don’t think this way. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in trouble because I reacted instantly, said something I later regretted, praised something that, upon consideration, wasn’t praiseworthy, or condemned something that turned out to be worthwhile. Fortunately, on most of these occasions, I spoke out of turn rather than in writing, which could last forever.

My perception of Facebook is that frequency of updates is the attraction. People seem disappointed if they aren’t receiving updates all the time and consequently act pressured to provide the same. This is simply not how I work. I use film and a large format camera because it slows me down, physically, mentally and emotionally. Before I could post an image I would need to process the film, make a contact print and then scan and adjust in Photoshop the negative before I could put it up on the internet. Hmm, I wonder why I would even want to do that when I haven’t had time to decide if I even like the image.

Furthermore, and no offense meant, but I’m not particularly interested in sharing the intimacies of my day, my mistakes or my struggles with the rest of the world. I have a wife, a few great friends and a therapist for all that. Being a “friend” to these people is more than enough of a challenge for me!

Time

Another point on which I take issue with Facebook is time. Time spent on Facebook is time not spent doing other things. We all have the same amount of time each day and we’re each free to choose how we spend it. I want to spend my time my way but the demands of self-employment, and being a husband, father, son and friend, often require that I spend it in other ways. I spend some time each day answering email in my office. I can get distracted following links, connecting with friends, answering questions for students. Then there seem to be those time swallowing details of keeping up my website, preparing and debriefing from workshops, preparing exhibits and working on business needs that keep me from photographing or making prints. In order to add Facebook entries into the mix I would have to give something up and I am not willing to do so. I just don’t believe that for the images I make and how I teach and the books I sell that the trade off is worth it to me.

Furthermore, it was suggested that someone other than myself could do these entries. My sons are away at school, can’t afford the assistant and my wife would divorce me if I suggested she might do so. Again, not how any of us are choosing to spend our time.

Privacy

Now for the issue of privacy. If you and I have a conversation about our photographs it is a private conversation between the two of us. Whether it is face to face, over the phone or by email, it is a private conversation about something we both care about. What is said should be of no importance to the rest of the world and I would hope we could be frank, thoughtful and illuminating of each other’s work. Our conversation would be very different if either of us thought the world was listening in. It would become a conversation where the audience was our major concern rather than the work we both care about.

Credibility

In any forum, particularly online forums where everyone is using a “handle” or “screen name” there is little determination for credibility. People who know nothing or very little about a subject can sound highly authoritative. If someone is posting a review or comment on your work how do you know who he or she are, what his or her experience or training is? Do they have the gravitas to speak on the subject? Have they thought about photography or your work? Do they care about your work or are they just looking for something to say? Should you care about what they are saying?

Interconnectivity

Facebook searches the web looking for people who share the same background, experiences, likes and dislikes and connects the dots so to speak. It allows people to get in touch with each other. This broadened exposure is a seemingly good reason to be on Facebook. However, if anyone wants to find me, all they have to do is Google “Tillman Crane” and there I am. On the other hand I can’t stop Google from bringing up my name but it doesn’t (I don’t think) “listen in” on my email conversations, sell my likes and dislikes, or own the images I put up on my website. Facebook “owns” and can use for its own purposes any images I put up on its network.

In summary, if you want to have a conversation about photography, yours or mine, get in touch with me and I will take it seriously. It will be a private conversation, not open to audience participation. Any work I put on my website or in my books or in an exhibit you can know that I have deliberately edited and carefully presented. It is the best I can offer at that point in time. I hope that when I post a new Musing that, like George Will or Ellen Goodman, that it is worth the time it takes for you to read it. At the very least I will do my best to think it though and write it as best I can. You may agree or disagree, or it simply may not speak to you, but I hope you won’t feel you wasted your time reading it.

Facebook may be the greatest social networking creation ever but I choose not to be a part of it. However, if you are and want to share my work with others then please direct them to my web site at www.tillmancrane.com or have them send me an email at tillman@tillmancrane.com. Or call us 207-230-0199. We make the time to answer the phone and return an email. You may even get a letter from us. If I don’t answer right away it’s because I am, hopefully, out making photographs or in the darkroom printing. I am doing what I am passionate about. And so, I hope, are you.

Tillman

What a great button the “delete” button is. I am sometimes envious of photographers using digital cameras because the equipment allows for instant feedback as well as removal of images that don’t work. For myself, working with traditional equipment and film I don’t see what’s on the film until long after I’ve left my subject. As I’ve written before, for me this is a good system. I like (and need) the separation of time and space between making an image and evaluating the processed negative because it allows me to see my work from a bit of distance. This “distance” brings opportunity to both evaluate the merits of the negative as well as decide where to take the image with printing. However this way of working has certain (more…)