Thanks.

Hey Jerry,

Thanks too – I’ve always admired what you’re doing there in the Blue Ridge area man. Let me know when the new book is out.

On the issue of ‘artist Vs ‘photojournalist, I’m with you. Regardless how clever we might be with computer trickery, or how great much we want to mess with a photo, a photo’s inherent power is it’s moment, it’s embrace with a reality. And that means it is, to some degree, intrinsically journalistic.

Cheers

Carl

As you know Wendall Berry is one my favorites, books and poetry. “The Unforeseen Wilderness” is my favorite book and the passages you quote from “One Inch Journey” are so incredible. The “sense of place” is a topic that I’ve talked about for years with students in my workshops and during presentations. In fact, I just finished an article for our “Mountain Trail Photo” website about this very thing. It seems to me that most photographers that I meet these days are only caught up in the “Art” of photography and will do anything, in Photoshops power, to create the perfect image of nature. When brought up the first response is always, “I’m not a photojournalist, I’m an artist and this is the way that I see it!”. Yeah, if you had dropped a bit of acid, is my usual comment! I have a really hard time with the statement “I’m not a photo journalist, I’m an artist”. I’m so confused as to how a photographer can have no connection with the environment that he/she is immersed in when working. When the photographer becomes aware of his/her place and truly connects with the environment being photographed the image becomes more that an over-processed derivative of that place. The desire to create through technology, aka Photoshop, becomes much less important. One starts finding images within images and no longer relies on the “WOW factor” for visual impact. This was hammered home for me a few days ago. A longtime friend and I were chatting and the conversation turned to over-processed images. As always with this subject, “sense of place” becomes the center of my thoughts. I asked my friend about his feelings on the environment that he photographs and he stated that he doesn’t work for that environment and that he is just there to take pretty pictures. This is really disturbing to me and a feeling that I cannot comprehend at all. Needless to say, Guy Tal is NOT one of those photographers! Guy Tal has found his “sense of place” and that is in the Desert just as I have found here in the Blue Ridge and, as it seems, you have in the cold arctic of Alaska. Thanks for giving me the motivation to reread “The Unforeseen Wilderness”, it is an inspiration to me as I put the finishing touches on my soon to be released new book, “Blue Ridge – Ancient and Majestic”.