Nature Photojournalism
_IGP9136, Perhentian Island, Terengganu, Malaysia, originally uploaded by hackspot.
Cruising the Perhentian Island, Perhentian Island, Terengganu, Malaysia
Taken with a Pentax K100D and Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro lens
The famous photographer James Balog was once asked:
Were you looking at other photographers' work or nature photographers' work, or were you maybe more inspired by documentary photographers?
And he answered:
Well, early on I learned a lot from looking at other photographers' work, and I was inspired by people who were doing that modernist landscape thing--Ansel Adams or Edward Weston. I was inspired by what I saw in National Geographic. I also was inspired by Eugene Richards and Eugene Smith, their concerned humanistic photojournalism.
Over time, I realized that because of my core interest in nature, I really wasn't an urban photojournalist, which is what photojournalism is about--it's about things that happen in urban places to the human race. What I was interested in was what's happening out in the natural spaces and what's happening between people and nature.
It seems like a real shame that the environmental side of photography hasn't focused enough on this interface between humans and nature. That's a big story, and there's a lot to look at, a lot to think about, a lot to talk about. Yet most photography that's concerned with nature focuses on the pure wilderness experience. All those pictures look alike. The room for creativity and innovation and invention is in how we're conceiving of our place in nature. That's where the frontier is, and that's where I've tried to be.
Labels: Pentax K100D, People, Perhentian 2007, Photography, Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro
