Photo Echos
In each issue, the Aperture Magazine feature “Photo Echo” presents two photographs of vastly different pedigrees or time periods, which, nevertheless, display striking similarities.
A variety of semi-conscious influences are inevitable in any artistic practice. During the editing process, I frequently notice unintended similarities between my images and those of photographers who have been significant stylistic influences upon me. This photo, it seems, owes an obvious debt to Burton Pritzker’s “Solitary Witness”.
I rarely find this phenomenon particularly surprising; Pritzker and I, for example, though not remotely equals, share distinct aesthetic and thematic priorities (and, in fact, often photograph in the very same locations). Recently, however, I experienced this circumstance in an altogether new and profound way.
Over the course of several cloudy days, I explored nearly the entire archive of Magnum photographer Alec Soth’s remarkably insightful blog. I find Soth’s photographic perspective so entrancing, I suspect, precisely because it is so markedly different from mine. Yet, upon returning from my morning shoot on the next sunny day, I discovered the two images reproduced above. These are clearly quite a departure from the norm for me, and I couldn’t help but think they demonstrate certain decidedly Alec Soth-esque qualities (not the least of which is the color...gasp!).
Perhaps this sort of influence is more powerful, immediate, and omnipresent than I initially imagined. Have a look at some selections from Alec’s series NIAGARA and Dog Days, Bogota, and let me know your thoughts on this phenomenon.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
All images © copyright Robert Shults. Unauthorized use prohibited.