“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
―
https://meanderingpassage.com//wp-content/uploads/images/2021/04/EBM-20120712073237-2.jpg
Morning Dreams
This image is about 80% original photo with enough manipulation to cause me to categorize it as a digital expression. This photo has been “haunting me” for some time, and I’ve struggled to try to pin down exactly what my unexpressed expectations of it were. I don’t know that I’ve successfully captured what I wanted to at this point, but it’s closer than I’ve been before.
If my memory doesn’t fail me and sometimes does, I believe the original image was made from on top of the wall at San Gimignano, Italy, during the morning hours. I can’t help but wonder about the effects the pandemic has had in Tuscany and other areas of Italy. I searched, and as of mid-April 2021, they remain in some level of lock-down with curfews and dining limitations. We found it so warm, friendly, and relaxed when we last visited. I hope someday soon it can return to something similar and that I can go back again.
My recent practice has been to virtually “frame” my digital expression images. Matching a frame to an image is an expressive process in itself. However, this image resisted all my efforts and limited skills to find the right frame, so I decided to forego the practice this once. I’m open to anyone’s contribution on what type of proper frame they could see it in.
The image definitely feels like a dream
Better a dream than a nightmare I guess. :-) Thanks, Howard!
For sure
I do like this dreamy scene. I have never been to Italy but always envisioned it in a romantic/picturesque way. I hope you get a chance to fulfill your dream and revisit Italy!
Like most places, Monte, you can find what you seek. Parts of Italy are romantic/picturesque, and the people are warm and friendly, but then there are also harsh realities of any nation with crowded cities and struggling citizens. But there is something special about having so much history. I may never get back there, but it’s still on my possibilities list! ;-)
Possibility list! I like that!
I don’t mind the “unframed” photo and what fits best is so influenced by personal preference, I wouldn’t know where to start. Like the others, I do enjoy the dreamy mood to it. Very painterly if you ask me, with intriguing layers throughout.
Thanks, Mark. “Painterly” is my manipulation while much of the definition of the layers were present in the original photo.
I always find “the photographer’s struggle” with what is “photo” and what is “digital manipulation” interesting. Well, maybe it is not a struggle for you, at all — it always is for me. I just noticed that you do have certain definitions so you put some thought into this. That wouldn’t be worth mentioning of course, but in the case of your “digital creation”, I do remember “softening” filters for film photography that were used in portrait photography for a soft, dreamy look. If you had put such a filter in front of your lens for the same effect… well, you get where my thoughts went. :)
I do get your thoughts, and perhaps it doesn’t matter, except in the case of photojournalism, if and where an image has been manipulated in the process. But I have to wonder on some images are they the work of a master photographer or the work of a master photoshopper? Either can be admired and prized and visually they may be near the same, but I think as a matter of integrity, a distinction needs to be made, not that any of my efforts fall into either case. Still, where are the lines to be drawn? Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Alex. You’ve given me much to ponder. :-)
To me, this is the “digital worry” — no one wonders whether Ansel Adams’ most iconic photographs are the work of a master photographer or the work of a master “darkroomer” (and master printer). It’s probably just as easy to produce unnatural, garish looking results in the darkroom and in print than it is with digital. So just do whatever feels right to you. If it’s good, it will be remembered, if not, it still made you happy when you did it.
I also find it interesting in how various photographers either come up with their own lines in the sand or go along with whatever groupthink they are exposed to.
And I particularly find it interesting as I read more about historical photographers that really helped bring photography recognition as an art form versus the purely documentary. The pushback and commentary from critics they received in the early 19th century is so similar to what we see today. Not much has changed in the struggle to define those lines, only the tools have.