on landscape The online magazine for landscape photographers

Reading the Landscape

The Inverse Image

Murray White

Murray White

Murray is an enthusiastic photographer of the natural landscape in Australia. His lifelong passion for the analogue process and remote area travelling emerged in the days when colour transparencies were king but has further evolved with the transition to exclusively B&W work. For him, the intimate landscape is a compelling partner when viewed on the ground glass of a large format camera, or observed with more fluidity through a well worn Mamiya 7.

The author of six 4WD guide books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles, Murray has spent the last five years revisiting Australia’s less popular areas with a monochromatic vision, content to satisfy more personal ambitions. He is a regular contributor to BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY magazine and the VIEW CAMERA AUSTRALIA website.

murraywhite.photography



Image 1 M White

Like growling water grows
into a drowning swell,
this scarp of buckled waves
pound more than they expel.
The screams of molten Earth
blast through ruptured jaws to Hell;
no doubt the horrors beneath,
wreak darkly stories as well.

I’ve long held the regrettable belief that landscape captures of a traditional genre are rarely seen by the non-photographic community as anything more than visual selections – sometimes captivating, even thoughtful selections, but selections made of those largely inanimate objects considered by many to be neutral elements. For the eyes of these viewers journey only to a place and time of presumed authentic origins, where beauty or perhaps darker moods prevail, but little separates this understanding from those intentions (and actions) perceived of the photographer. There may be a feeling of having simply being privy to a view of singular worth, as witnessed by another.

To say that a fleeting pictorial only assessment of that landscape is all that is justified almost certainly devalues a photograph’s true potential, as even the most casual of images evolve from a unique perspective.

In the making of a photograph, we all consciously or otherwise prioritise features, exclude elements and wish to acknowledge something of a more subliminal presence in the composition, however elusive that desire may be in reality.
In the making of a photograph, we all consciously or otherwise prioritise features, exclude elements and wish to acknowledge something of a more subliminal presence in the composition, however elusive that desire may be in reality.

Titling an image is one way to draw your viewer away from an otherwise purely visual interpretation and into a mindset where a declared artistic intention brings additional weight. A few well chosen keywords may stimulate our pictorial objectivity and metaphorically rearrange a photograph’s architecture into an alternative understanding. For me, choosing to title a landscape with information other than a location or time has helped both present a parallel understanding to a viewer and, indeed, challenge my own sense of place in relationship to the environment.

In recent years, that familiarity with landscape for me has become more engaging, more intimate, and, I believe, more communicative. Those once descriptive titles have now morphed into increasingly multi-layered phrases and, ultimately, into poetic pairings. Today, I find verse without any titling at all offers a rewarding exchange between the image and its latent meaning – at least to me as the maker. Perhap,s too, a viewer now possessing another perspective will find a passing visual encounter to no longer be conclusive; this interaction must be approached as if a meeting of minds, where involvement is clearly encouraged.

Image 2 M White

How far away
does space go on
… to astral graves,
where light rays shone?
Or further still,
beyond these tombs.
Where nothing leaves.
But space resumes.

Image 3 M White

Look first to light
for what is sure,
lest that unseen
doubts what we saw.
But feel the truth
that sight ignores:
when darkness breathes,
our soul explores.

To those visual folk uneasy with a word and image pairing, it is worth mentioning that diptychs and similar photographic mechanisms of association have long served as very effective vectors for viewer interaction. In their simplest form, such pairings provide evidence of visual or emotional similarities (or differences) while more complex examples can explore those conceptual landscapes where the meaning or question may be more nuanced. In either guise, it is the exchange itself that confirms of a deeper link, an idea that the partnership holds more value than the sum of its parts.

A poetic pairing can exhibit these same mutually beneficial qualities. Sympathetic verse blends effortlessly with an appropriate image to either broaden the scope of its understanding or narrow the focus to a specific aspect of the subject. In some instances, both outcomes can be simultaneously true – in my mind, the capacity for an ambiguous pairing to evade description or be different things to different people only amplifies the possibilities for us as the creator.

My eyes are invariably drawn to cryptic subjects and puzzling features, especially those that mimic human behaviours or suggest bodily forms, and I enjoy the holistic flavour that verse can bring to these studies. Anthropomorphic images invite the use of text to further that interpretation or even imply conscious communication.

My eyes are invariably drawn to cryptic subjects and puzzling features, especially those that mimic human behaviours or suggest bodily forms, and I enjoy the holistic flavour that verse can bring to these studies.
Less overt imagery can still suggest of a link, elevating otherwise random pictorial forms into a perceived living relationship, where poetic words can sustain that ephemeral transition between the abstract and reality that we photographers crave.

Image 4 M White

In an underworld of polish,
like an opal cut by trolls,
the weary hone of time
shines its gloss in jagged knolls.
Water skips a starry glint,
on that trickling chime that rolls;
through endless velvet echoes,
so smoothing to our souls.

Using words as a catalyst to extend the artistic merit (both real or projected) of our landscape is no different to any other mechanism we may reach for. But just as alternative processes or dramatic Photoshop editing, for example, are unlikely to transform a mediocre image into a more meaningful print, poetic verse can only pass on that which the photograph is capable of holding. An inadequate image will not be redeemed by poetry alone. And vice versa.

Despite the overlap of this media driven collaboration, the photograph must still provide an engaging visual experience without the aid of verbal direction. Ideally, any words should remain meaningful and uncoupled from the image. (Although it could be argued that as visual layers always exist, they will be self-evident to the viewer; however, words, particularly poetic sequences, are often vague and therefore rely on context for clarification.) Either way, the best work is made when each component is singularly strong, gathering even more power in concert.

In my practice, I have chosen to only use two rhyming quatrains to accompany an uncropped 4X5 format monochromatic image. Somewhat paradoxically, I find the limitations that accompany these self-imposed creative boundaries actually broaden the scope of the pairing. Using only a Mamiya 7 and 4X5 Ebony, I force myself to identify landscape elements compatible with standard silver gelatin paper sizes rather than allow the most obvious subject or compositional framework to dictate how I should treat it. Similarly, by containing my text to a specific length and format, I must explore alternative and unexpected arrangements of verse because I have found that which initially links most conveniently to the image often contributes the least inspiring content.

Image 5 M White

Should belief respond to cues
that vision yearns to see;
to assume that curves must flow,
like roots support a tree?
Or shall form beyond clear sight,
as shadows may promote,
then pose another truth -
or sink what seems to float?

Choosing to follow an instinctive rather than intellectual pathway through an image and its supporting text does not necessarily weaken the veracity of the subject matter either. I remain committed to a faithful reproduction of the natural environment (notwithstanding the B&W capture), but happily respond to those unexpected possibilities that emerge from the visual authenticity.

Choosing to follow an instinctive rather than intellectual pathway through an image and its supporting text does not necessarily weaken the veracity of the subject matter either.
Perhaps reverence for landscape demands that we not confine its potential to only specific visual practices but allow providence and imagination to coalesce in a more enlightened tribute.

Indeed, one of the most rewarding aspects of pairing words with photography is being able to explore the visual world as a participant and redefine our own sense of landscape. In many instances, the basic concept and its artistic intention at the time of exposure remain fixed, but the breadth of interpretation, and importantly, those boundaries we may have consciously set, need not restrict a richer understanding of the scene. Perhaps choosing to find words may also find a depth we have not visualised before.



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