The distence Between us
Use your camera as a measuring device. This doesn’t refer to the distance scale on the focus ring. Rather, find a subject that you have empathy with and take a sequence of shots to ‘explore the distance between you’. Add the sequence to your learning log, indicating which is your ‘select’ – your best shot.
When you review the set to decide upon a ‘select’, don’t evaluate the shots just according to the idea you had when you took the photographs; instead evaluate it by what you discover within the frame (you’ve already done this in Exercise 1.4). In other words, be open to the unexpected. In conversation with the author, the photographer Alexia Clorinda expressed this idea in the following way:
Look critically at the work you did by including what you didn’t mean to do. Include the mistake, or your unconscious, or whatever you want to call it, and analyse it not from the point of view of your intention, but because it is there.
Miko is a Siberian husky and she comes with me on most photoshoots. I walk her daily, all weather, and we cover many kilometres together and have a bond that runs deep. The sequence of photos is about a faithful dog and her owner.
The treat after a walk. I was totally focused on her and the positioning of the treat between her paws-never noticed the bag of moss peat top left.
A familiar occurance, looking out the patio door to see her asleep in the garden...her toys are to the left-they didnt register when I pressed the shutter, but they are fitting - she likes a game of football- her stuff, and the garden, her space.
People always comment on her blue eyes but for me this shot is about the distence between us-we are close and my empathy runs deep. Its also personal and Im not sure a photo alone can tanslate that depth.
For this shot her paw hanging over the coach pulled me in-I didn't notice her other paw curled up under her snout.
Her shadow wasnt part of my intention, only noticed it afterwards. I has of shifted my point of view more to the right I could have omitted the plants (top right) and created a clerer shoot of her and her shadow.
The sun shining through her fur totally absrobed my attention- beyond that I saw little else. However, looking at it afterwards I felt a sense of vulnerability about the shoot.
My select
My pick from the series is a metaphor for the ‘distance between us’-in this case closeness. It’s not necessarily the ‘best’ photo but it occurred to me when reviewing the photos, that within the family I’m the closest to the dog as I walk her daily and take her everywhere I go -its a bond created out of time spent together and for me, it all comes together in her eyes. The empathy I have for her is based on an understanding or acceptance of what she does, how she behaves (huskies are very hard to train) etc, from having other huskies over the years- I’m a one-breed owner. When reviewing the photos, they revealed to me a feeling, and this one especially came together in her eyes. This photo is about me, Miko and our shared experiences. What it says to the viewer I can’t control, nor does it matter, I just hope they can take something from it.
