The photo-essay is a handy way of collecting together visual research in contexts where the eye notices details and moves quickly on. The purpose then is to capture eye-catching details as they occur. An essential item is of course a camera: light, pocket-sized and digital; and an eye: curious, critical and composed. The sequence of images recorded mark the eye's journey through place and presents a visual map of unexpected detours led by the eye. There can be marvellous suprises; and rather than 'views', it is often small details which best evoke particular memories or reveal unexpected connections. Hence, I try to concentrate on details just as I find them, and rather than start with much of a preconceived idea, I trust the eye and follow it. It's quite an entertaining game to play as you meander through a city like Baudelaire's flaneur.
I tried it recently in Italy. The chance to explore where I was with just eye and pocket camera seemed a worthwhile challenge and an opportunity to test the photo-essay as a potential method for our students; maybe it can be allied with studio themes, perhaps with brief captions from chosen (poetic or literary?) texts. Whichever, this way of studying appearances becomes a phenomenology of those fleeting details which cause us to hestitate and record the transience of our own passing eye.
I tried it recently in Italy. The chance to explore where I was with just eye and pocket camera seemed a worthwhile challenge and an opportunity to test the photo-essay as a potential method for our students; maybe it can be allied with studio themes, perhaps with brief captions from chosen (poetic or literary?) texts. Whichever, this way of studying appearances becomes a phenomenology of those fleeting details which cause us to hestitate and record the transience of our own passing eye.
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