On Landscape

[@GillmanStudio]

So I have got to the end of your videos Justin. Thanks for the boot up the back side. I have been fighting internally for a few years now to move away from 'post card' images. They brought me plenty of success in competitions local and national, but my heart was always elsewhere. I find myself with a huge library of images I wont show, as I dont think anyone would like them. They are quirky, odd, unconventional. But they are me, maybe its time to be true to oneself and concentrate on what Io wish to produce now what I think is expected of me as a photographer. If no one looks, that Ok. The future is going to be interesting. Thanks for helping me realise where I wanted to really be with my art. Martin www.thevividland.com

[@stilllife-artandthephotogr3494]

What a great comment, thank you Martin. I think at some point one has to either go with the money, or go with your heart and soul. For a few lucky people the two combine, but for most of us it does not. The vast majority of photographers on KZbin appear to be money-oriented, commercial photographers, and that's fine if they really want to do that. But you can not fake art. You can't fake sincerity, though many try. This channel is for people who want to do the best they can, to make great images, not to merely make money or get likes on social media. Thank you for understanding that.

[@nanoulandia]

Glad to have found your channel as I could not agree more. Aiming to do work along these lines so the examples and analysis you present is right on point.

[@psrosemary]

Thank you for this thoughtful, affirming video. I've just switched from 55 years of abstract painting to minimally processed landscape photography...so this really hits the spot!

[@emilianoa4]

Recently discovered your Channel and I really like it (the videos on photographic tecniques and photographers more than the ones on gear I must admit) as I'm going through your massive video collection and finding ideas and inspiration. Excellent job.

[@trevorcoleman1721]

I have just watched this video and look forward hugely to working through the rest of them. At last, someone who thinks deeply about photography and the feelings photographs can and do engender. Thank you.

[@stilllife-artandthephotogr3494]

Many thanks Colin.

[@justininfrance]

Kértész is a big favourite of mine.

[@dmlewey]

Peter Lik is perhaps the best known example of a hugely successful landscape photographer with the chocolate box leaning....if you wanted to edge away from TH. One problem is that this tribe doesn't encourage and seek any formal structures within their work that are consistent. Across a gallery every image is competing for acclaim rather than working together as a coherent set. Thanks for the Meyerowitz, I'd never seen it before and it's absolutely top notch. In agreement on drone images. Wonderful abstractions. Zero credit as a photographer.

[@FlosBlog]

The main thing that bugs me about these types of KZbin photographers is that they make me watch a 40 minute video about it where they „capture this stuhnin view“.

[@grahamparton7508]

Brilliant stuff, just wondered if you’d come across Jem Southam? G

[@stilllife-artandthephotogr3494]

Oh yes, love Jem!

[@seoulrydr]

enjoy the shared experience. and if you're alone, enjoy that too. include a small cliche work of art to your life's diary.

[@uniktbrukernavn]

Funny how I immediately knew who you were talking about despite me never seeing that particular video :) Nick Carver is probably my favorite photographer that has his own channel on youtube, but he isn't an youtuber and he doesn't pump out weekly videos like you have to in order to grow on this platform. Ever since discovering "liminal spaces" I've been slightly obsessed by it, and it has spread to cover the mundane as well.

[@davidsaunders2649]

Thanks.

[@Rambleswithmycameraonyoutube]

Justin I can see and agree with you on where you are coming from on the similarity of landscape photography today especially with the saturation/contrast etc but Justin I disagree that someone who doesnt get a photo may need to just take their time to acquire an understanding and appreciation for how art works, before they can like a clearly blurry and and badly exposed and mundane image, which you showed many in your examples of landscapes that you like. Personally I liked a few of your examples that you liked Fay Godwin photo at 4:11 Iban Ramon Rodriguez 4:30 and Andre Kertesz at 4:42 4:49 also Robert Adams 6:22 but as for the others I could spend hours and hours in front of them and I would still see not get them and see average Joe, boring photographs BUT that is just my opinion. I have found many artists a strange bunch irrespective of genre :-) I usually avoid exhibition openings because they think about the piece to much and its almost as if they try to outdo each on who 'gets it' more than the other :-) Sadly most have an elitist attitude when it comes to art and they usually dismiss someone else's opinion, and so the last thing I want to do is, dismiss yours but I think on this occasion in relation to your views on why the majority of us dont get these photos, I think you are coming across as one of those elitist's man. A boring photo is a boring photo and yes so many landscape photos out there are tacky and boring (i have took some too haha) but for anyone to dismiss people if they find those types of photos stunning, beautiful and stimulating (my words not yours) or because they dont get photos like you shared, it is not that they are lacking an appreciating for art or need to take time to acquire the taste and understanding of what true landscape photography/art, maybe we should respect their taste and who is to say the majority is not correct? Maybe the over saturated landscapes is the flared trousers of the 70's :-) and maybe a blurred dark landscape is just a blurred dark landcape or maybe both are works of art, who knows man :-) So in that contact my brother I disagree with you man, but I hope one day we can sit together and discuss this as typing NEVER really gets a point across the way a conversation back and forth could and I could learn more from your thoughts and have a better understanding on what you get and I am open to change my thoughts on this ♥ Sean

[@stilllife-artandthephotogr3494]

Sean many thanks for your well considered comments. My girlfriend also chided me on my elitist views, so I am planning a few other videos on landscape (my main photographic activity) where I can go into this a bit deeper. I do come at this from a fine art background, I have been a painter for thirty years, but the reason I have started a KZbin channel on photography rather than painting is because I want to explore why I find some images great and others not. With a painting I know exactly why I like something, but in photography I don't! It's like this magical, mysterious thing that is very difficult to explain even to myself, so I want to explore that. I've done a video on Raymond Moore, a great favourite of mine, I know many people would find him boring, I think he was a genius. So I'm planning videos on landscape looking at a few of my heros and trying to find out why the hell I like them so much. Cheers from the pyrenees. Justin

[@GillmanStudio]

Chip in if I may. I agree to some of your points. Some of the examples here are hard to 'get'. But what I think is perhaps wrong here is the implied direct comparisons to what we would call modern conventional landscape photographs with those known classics. For me those saturated images Justin scrolled through are a long way away from the examples shown by Godwin, Kertesz and Sudek. Very very different to me anyway. I do see the beauty in both sets of examples but I wouldn't put them together for comparison personally. But then what do I know, I dropped out of my Photography degree after year 1 due to workloads. The key difference for me is that the post card images where just that, I shot what i saw in front of me and few contained the elements of design in composition particularly that we should expect from art, they show skill at imaging sure but lack of visual education. Thats what I get from the comparisons anyway. Thanks :)

[@JCarlos.unknown]

Very interesting. As an amateur learning photography, I find your perspective quite interesting. At a point where I see myself trying to find a way out of "postal photography", this channel seems to be a bit of fresh air.

[@stilllife-artandthephotogr3494]

Thanks Joao. I do have a very particular take on photography that I hope others can share. I don't see any other photography channel on YT talking about this stuff.

[@lazarostir8535]

All your videos are always on point, well done!!! Everything is boring nowadays, even the "art" that's being produced... Sad 😔

[@toke7560]

Whilst flicking through the colour pictures i almost switched off, i just couldn't connect with them, boring, i think the word is. Then you got to the proper stuff. The basic the black and white the non sharp pictures the interesting stuff.

[@whpost]

z

[@henkoosterink8744]

I think i feel the same as you, those epic landscapes are giving me an empty feeling. I prefer photographers as Simon Baxter far more. More intimate photography.