October 2017 – Dietmar Tallroth

Mood and Meaning

In Art & Photography

As promised I wanted to come back to the topic of mood and meaning in landscape or nature photography. It is a complex topic, but let’s try.

We usually don’t associate landscapes with meaning, especially meaning for us. If we are asked to look back at our lives and to evaluate them, I think most of us would come up first with social evaluations: friends, relationships, kids that turned out well, career, wealth, achievement, making a difference and so on. Rarely, if at all, people would start with statements like “my life was worth living, because I have seen the Baltic Sea”. We are clearly social animals and our social relationships, the judgement of others and our place in society are how we define us.

(more…)

Nominated again

October 16, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Announcements / Art & Photography

DietmarTallroth-0006 — Birch Cubism I, 2017

This is just a short note that again one of my works, Birch Cubism I, has won a nomination at the Black & White Spider Awards in the category Nature/Professionals.

Like the last time, it is a picture that doesn’t quite fit into the genre landscape photography – and, interestingly, the Black & White Spider Awards don’t make a distinction between nature and landscape photography, either. Instead they distinguish between categories “Nature” and “Wildlife”, which kind of leaves cityscapes (often counted as landscapes) to seek for another home.

Maybe this seems like not such an important topic. My work so far has also stretched from architecture to abstract to nature to landscape. There is no rule that binds a photographer and certain photographs to a single genre. Still, as a photographer one is often required (for marketing and other purposes) to summarize what one’s work is all about. “Whatever interests me” is in that context not perceived as a good answer. Therefore, this question kind of keeps popping up in my mind. But more on that later.

Again, there has been overall excellent work among the submissions so check it out! These competitions are a good place to see what is state-of-the-art in photography and they do show what other people are working with.

Returning

October 14, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

There are a few places and views to which I am drawn over and over again. And as I keep taking photos of the same scenery, it feels like I am trying to do a kind of 36 views of Mt Fuji. Which I am not. At least not consciously. So why am I returning? After having thought about this for a while, I think I might have an answer. And one, that in a way surprised myself.

The photo on top has been made at Kallahti a small park in the eastern suburbs of Helsinki. The park is situated only a few miles from the city center and reachable by public transport. As the park is on a peninsua pointing towards the open waters of the Baltic Sea, it is also a good place to study and enjoy the multiple layers of islands that form the archipelago in front of the coast.

(more…)

In Praise of Shadows

October 8, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

Here in Finland we know about darkness. After all, in parts of the country the sun doesn’t rise for weeks on end. Even in the south of the country, we have on average only 29 hours of sunshine per month in December. Ok, “south” is relative here. Helsinki lies at about 60° latitude, the same as southern Greenland or Kenai in Alaska. No wonder then that many around here suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) coming from light deficiency or simply loath the onset of the season of constant twilight. But not all darkness is created equal and I do think darkness has its upside. Especially also for photographers.

In 1933 the Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki wrote his famous essay “In Praise of Shadows”. Some of the fame of the text might have to do with the fact that it sings the praise for the Japanese monastic outhouses (among other things). Still, Tanizaki explains in the essay how Japanese aesthetics embrace, and have evolved from, use and appreciation of dim lightning. He finds in reduced lightning the same suggestiveness that seems to permeate also, for example, Japanese literature and especially poetry. And I think he might have a point there.

(more…)