The Blog@DHP-Details 04/02/2011
"Details create the big picture."
Sanford I. Weill
When I am taking photographs, it is naturally the overall scene that I see first. What makes up that scene however, are the details. In those details are where I find my art. It could be a rusted mirror on an old truck by the side of the road. It could be worn, split and weathered boards on a barn. The bluish gray tones of the sky before a thunderstorm could be the detail. Every photograph contains these details. Finding them isn't always easy.
"The details always tell the story."
James McBride
That is true in storytelling and in art. What from a distance may appear to be one thing becomes something entirely different up close. A white shed that looks very plain from across the street takes on a whole new life when I walk up to it. The paint is missing in places, rusted nails create patterns of orange, clapboards are split and some are warped. The building was obviously built with care, it has stood for many years. For some reason, at some point, it was not taken care of with that same dedication. Just enough has been done to keep it usable, those details tell the story of this shed.
"The details are not the details. They make the design."
Charles Eames
Sometimes being up close and looking for the individual pieces can cause you to miss a detail. There is an old, empty general store on Route 112 in Saco, Maine, it has a very unique look. I've driven past it many times in my life and had planned on photographing it at some point. One day last year the light was just right as I drove that way, and I stopped. I took many wonderful pictures of the the paint flaking off the antique gas pumps that stand guard next to the stone pillars. The textures and colors gave so many opportunities that it was hard to stop shooting. Before I left I decided to cross the street and look from a different view. I was not sorry. From a ditch on the other side of the road, I was able to frame a group of lupines in the foreground that very nearly mimicked the shape of the pillars of the store. The store was so striking that I had neve bothered to see what was on the other side of the road those many times I had driven past.
A detail can be an ultra-tight, macro shot that shows no sense of scale or relationship; something that when a viewer finds it in the photograph gives them that "a-ha" moment; or something in between. I look for those details and capture them to create my art.
"Details create the big picture."
Sanford I. Weill
When I am taking photographs, it is naturally the overall scene that I see first. What makes up that scene however, are the details. In those details are where I find my art. It could be a rusted mirror on an old truck by the side of the road. It could be worn, split and weathered boards on a barn. The bluish gray tones of the sky before a thunderstorm could be the detail. Every photograph contains these details. Finding them isn't always easy.
"The details always tell the story."
James McBride
That is true in storytelling and in art. What from a distance may appear to be one thing becomes something entirely different up close. A white shed that looks very plain from across the street takes on a whole new life when I walk up to it. The paint is missing in places, rusted nails create patterns of orange, clapboards are split and some are warped. The building was obviously built with care, it has stood for many years. For some reason, at some point, it was not taken care of with that same dedication. Just enough has been done to keep it usable, those details tell the story of this shed.
"The details are not the details. They make the design."
Charles Eames
Sometimes being up close and looking for the individual pieces can cause you to miss a detail. There is an old, empty general store on Route 112 in Saco, Maine, it has a very unique look. I've driven past it many times in my life and had planned on photographing it at some point. One day last year the light was just right as I drove that way, and I stopped. I took many wonderful pictures of the the paint flaking off the antique gas pumps that stand guard next to the stone pillars. The textures and colors gave so many opportunities that it was hard to stop shooting. Before I left I decided to cross the street and look from a different view. I was not sorry. From a ditch on the other side of the road, I was able to frame a group of lupines in the foreground that very nearly mimicked the shape of the pillars of the store. The store was so striking that I had neve bothered to see what was on the other side of the road those many times I had driven past.
A detail can be an ultra-tight, macro shot that shows no sense of scale or relationship; something that when a viewer finds it in the photograph gives them that "a-ha" moment; or something in between. I look for those details and capture them to create my art.
©2010/11 David Hill Photography
