Tension

This photo makes me think of french cinema ...... like something by Eric Rommer. The women are so ordinary and everyday yet so expressive .... like  a scene from life ..... like the films of Goddard and others who strive to be real in a surreal way that is so appropriate for the movies .... without much pretense like the American cinema and sometimes American photography as well.... though Amercian photographers are way ahead of the game when it comes to being real when compared to our filmmakers and their industry.

Comments

[Lisa]

I thought of "Pickpocket" by Bresson when I looked at this pic.
Nice shots all around.
Thanks!

[Hirschfeld]

Movies are, of necessity, usually staged. Some few filmmakers have focused on documenting "reality" but the filmmakers you mention, and the industry in general, is limited by the needs of financing and the restraints imposed by the technology. This is changing. Now we have both inexpensive equipment (that doesn't even require film!) and the access to world-wide distribution at little or no cost. Movies are evolving accordingly. Please remember, however, that "pretense" is unavoidable once you have "mediated" reality. The task of the artist is to render that pretense invisible, so that the viewer's contribution to accessing reality is enhanced, rather than directed or stifled.

[charles]

I am in agreement that mediating reality is and important part of the work of any artist and concealing the artist hand in the work is the intention of some but not all but the thing that really interests me is what is stimulated in the viewer by the work. Primarily, does the work provoke a question? Does it cause the viewer/participant to remain awake? Or does the work deceptively lull the viewer (no longer a participant) to sleep, wrapped up in a story that neatly feeds back into itself in a way that resists examination of the present reality?

There is far too much sleep walking ..... the technology we have created demands that we stay awake at the switch.