Last week I was sitting in the lobby of a nursing care facility here in Doylestown. Not the most exciting place to be sitting, but that is part of the deal now. I was just sort of waiting around until I noticed a very interesting display across the lobby on the far wall. I recognized the distinctive Moravian tile that has been made since 1898 at the world famous Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, in Doylestown. They’re handmade and produced in a manner similar to that developed by the pottery’s founder and builder, Henry Chapmen Mercer (1856-1930). Mercer was an American archeologist, artifact collector and tile-maker, not to mention the designer of three distinctive landmark buildings in Doylestown. Beginning in the 1890s he devoted himself to finding old American artifacts and learning about German pottery. Mercer believed that American society was being destroyed by industrialism, which inspired his search for American artifacts. In addition to producing unique tile creations, Mercer began a collection of early American tools he assembled that is now housed in the equally famous Mercer Museum, also in Doylestown (NOTE: I think I am very lucky to live here, where we also have the incredible Michener Art Museum!!!).
Anyway, back to the wall display at the nursing care facility. In addition to containing simple, yet beautiful Moravian tiles, there was a description of Mercer’s philosophy that said his tiles have been and should be works of art and works of art can never be made by machinery … they must be crafted by hand and not by mechanical processes.
I not sure I fully buy into America being destroyed by industrialism … it was certainly being changed from a predominantly agrarian society, but that was also the direction the entire Western world was going, and there was no turning back.
The question of course is whether “modernism” and technological development with all that comes with it can be balanced in such a way that protects what is still precious about the environment, as well as the way we should ideally live and carry out our lives … including our creative lives.
So what does this have to do with photography you might ask? I actually think a great deal. I truly believe and have found in my own experience that anything worth doing is hard. But having put in the hard work, there is true satisfaction in the accomplishment!
We can be lazy and sloppy in the analog world and the results are easy to see. But I think the dangers are even greater with digital because it’s just so damn easy. This semester I’m teaching two photography classes and all my students use digital devices of some kind. I tell them the most important thing they can do to improve their results is to slow down and concentrate. No need to squeeze off 500 shots during the course of an afternoon hoping to find a keeper somewhere buried within all the rubble. Then there is the question of what happens with Photoshop. I think it is critical that it be used subtly and judiciously. Yes, we dodge and burn and use different contrasts when we print in the darkroom, but in the digital world it’s just too easy to blatantly manipulate … because … well … it’s just too easy.
And what about color? I think the success of a color photograph is based in great part on how color is properly used, be it subtly or bold. That takes great seeing, thought and work. Finally there is the print itself. Don’t print a bunch on your Epson, Canon, etc., without some serious review of the final results. Better to make sure what you’re looking at is what you originally envisioned.
So in the end, whether you use film and print in a darkroom or shoot digital and print with an ink jet printer, what it really comes down to is whether you have accomplished what you set out to do in the first place? Have you expressed what you saw in your mind’s eye with a purity of vision? But most importantly did you make a real effort to produce the best you could instead of taking the easy way out?
Think about it.
