A short post today. Over the years, I’ve taken this same photo over and over again. No, not the exact photo, but the archetype, so to speak. Big sky. Imposing clouds. Small people. Small buildings, etc. I’m not sure exactly what it means and I don’t want to over think it, but sometimes I do wonder what’s beneath that.
I can catch myself trying to take it and I usually will give in to that desire and take the shot even though I have dozens upon dozens just like it. Somehow it suits me, but I just don’t know why.
Do you have any shots like that? Those that you seem to take over and over again, but they satisfy you deeply on some level. Also, if you see a similar shot you’ll stop and have a look for a moment, two, or perhaps longer.
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8 Responses to “Photo archetype”
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I do! It just may be that I try to capture the same scene at different times, no 2 sunrises/sunsets are the same, or it could be I just like that place so much, I can say I was here…
Terrific negative space!
I don’t know if this is the same, but after many years of photographing finding you never really evolved, that you after 20 years still make the same compositions and prefers the b+w to be in the same way as you have always liked it – that makes me wonder if it is I who am the archetype, not the subject. To your question, I do have lots of subjects like yours, with the pier, which I returns to often. In fact, I know a pier nearby me, which I have made hundreds of shots of over the years.
Paul, I do the same thing. Mine is roads/paths/walkways. I can’t stop.
Lovely image.
Absolutely, and I always wonder why I am drawn to some of the same types of images, over and over and over. Really, I don’t know, nor does it matter. Something compels me, I’m glad I at least have a camera to create the scenes. Left with pen and paper to draw, I would be in big trouble, lol.
[...] orderliness. Its also a path, which I tend to photograph over and over and over. Paul Lester (http://www.paullesterphoto.com/wordpress/?p=2397) recently wrote about this in one of his posts. I have more photos of trails and paths than I can [...]
I can’t tell you how many pictures I have taken of sunsets, paths, lone trees, and then all the ones of horses. Sometimes I think that I take the same five or ten photographs over and over again.
@All: I’m glad to know that I’m not alone!
I actually think it is worth some careful consideration. If you explore your motivations, you might find a way to connect more deeply with the pictures and maybe improve the end result.
We all have these themes we return to, consciously or not. I think awareness can only improve the results. An old white beardy dude once said “The unexamined life is not worth living.”