Material world: on ideas in photography
Is photography content too focused on technical topics rather than ideas?
This week, I was reading a post titled “Why did you take this photo?” by
. In the intro, he talks about photography content and conversations being geared towards technical issues (lighting, editing, composition…) instead of ideas. He writes:“So at some point, I finally started telling people I’d like to talk about other things. Not composition, not settings, not Lightroom or Photoshop (…). I wanted to know why you took this image, or why I like this image, maybe talk about what the image means.”
I agree with the sentiment. I have a note titled “why photography” where I write random snippets that attempt to answer some why’s. Although that note is not yet in any sharable form, I thought I’d share some photography projects expressing ideas.
Material World: A Global Family Portrait
Material World: A Global Family Portrait is a book by photographer Peter Menzel. In 1994, Menzel brought together 16 documentary photographers to create a global family portrait of life in 30 countries. Photographers spent a week living with an average family in each country to learn about their habits, their work, and their attitudes towards material possessions. At the end of the week, the photographer would take the “big picture”: a photo of the family outside of their home with all their material possessions laid out in front of the home.
The book, according to its forward, is an attempt to capture both the common humanity of people on earth and the differences in material possessions. The differences are definitely captured, the commonalities are a bit more difficult to make out. When looking at each country’s “big picture”, the contrast in the number and type of possessions is striking. It’s easy to see which countries accumulate more and more stuff.
Beyond the “big picture”, the book also shows other fascinating photos of each family going about their daily lives. On these photos, the similarities become clearer. There’s a mix of working, eating, learning, playing, and family chilling. The context is different for each country and family, but the essence is the same. I am sharing a few photos from South Africa, Western Samoa, and Japan.
South Africa: The Qampie Family
Western Samoa: The Lagavale family
Japan: The Ukita Family
I would really love to see a comparison of children's toys........ or kitchen tools..... or what people do in the evenings ......