Jim Walczak
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2004
- Messages
- 226
- Reaction score
- 90
- Location
- Lorain, Ohio
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Ok...please forgive me if I get a tad philosophical or nostalgic here...this just seems like it would be an interesting topic for discussion and I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions. Also please keep in mind that I'm something of an oddball (for those who haven't read any of my comments/threads) and I do often have some rather unconventional views...in other words, don't take my comments too seriously. Please bear with me...this could get a bit weird! LOL!
Alrighty...this may sound kind of weird, but as a photographer who also happens to be an art lover, in recent years I've found myself studying (for lack of a better word) a lot of vintage photographs that I often see in places like restaurants or fast food chains. I will admit here that I do have a strong appreciation for nostalgia...I -LOVE- looking at images from bygone eras. Even before I started taking my own photography seriously (let alone considered it as something of a business), I often found myself looking at old pictures of, say amusement parks. Having grown up a native Ohio resident, there are a couple of long defunct amusement parks...older Ohio residents may remember the names "Euclid Beach", "Chippewa Lake" or even the more recently defunct "Geauga Lake". I have always found myself rather fascinated by images of these places. Even as a young kid, my family would go to Cedar Point (which MANY may have heard of) and stand around in their Town Hall, gazing at pictures of the park dating back as far as the late 1800's. And this doesn't apply to JUST amusement parks...I seem to have a fascination with old photos in general. I even have a really old shot of a couple standing in from of a car that I found in an OLD camera case I purchased at a thrift store. For all intensive purposes, it's just a snap shot and judging by the car in the background (not to mention the photo paper used) I'd put the image around the late 30's, early 40's. The picture is well framed, properly exposed, sharp, etc., however it's not really anything spectacular...it's just a couple standing in a driveway in front of a car, but I often find myself just staring at that shot. Something about that shot just captivates my attention whenever I look at it. I honestly can't say -why- such images have always fascinated me, only that they do.
Ok...reminiscent tangent aside....again been looking at a lot of images lately that I see in a lot of restaurants (I said this was gonna get weird, LOL). I'm talking about places like McD's, Dairy Queen, Waffle House, etc., etc.. In some cases, such as DQ and Waffle House, many of the pics are often little more than historic shots of the chains themselves...a local DQ for example has a fair number of pictures of various DQ's throughout the years, dating back to the company's establishment in the late 30's, with franchises that came about in the mid 40's and 50's. Again I can't say why exactly, but such images really seem to hold my attention. Some of the images are in fact quite interesting...a local Quizno's for example has a framed shot of a couple of guys on a ladder, loading some REALLY BIG rolls of cheese onto shelves for "aging"(and I mean BIG...talkin' rolls of mozzarella that look to be a good 6 feet wide!)...it's actually a rather fascinating image to look at. Likewise a local McD's had a shot of a couple on a motor scooter...it really has NOTHING to do with McD's, or even hamburgers, but it's a fun shot. That said however, not all such shots are really great...many are rather mundane and a few a pretty bad.
This is where we get to the point of this little ramble of mine...in another thread here on TPF, a user had posted a link to some vintage surfing photography, specifically "LeRoy Grannis. Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s" (here's the link). The first shot that came up was a wide shot of a beach...cars in the foreground, a few people on the beach in the mid ground and lots of surfers riding the waved in the background. On the one hand, I -really- love that image...it has a lot of visual interest for me (particularly with the vintage cars in the foreground...love that old Woodie down front there and the old VW "Bugs"!) and the rather subdued colors give it that "vintage feel"...I really stared at that shot for quite a while, which of course, is what good photography is all about. ON THE OTHER HAND, it also got me to thinking...always a dangerous thing...if I were to shoot such an image myself today, in all likelihood....I'd probably delete it. As a vintage photo, it has a great deal of appeal to me, however if this were shot in a contemporary setting, I would probably find myself wondering exactly what the point of such a shot is. Does that make sense??
This got me to thinking about a lot of other historic photos I've seen...for example a number of shots I was looking at earlier this summer at the Mohican Museum in Loudonville Ohio, where they built those old Flxible buses. Again in terms of vintage photography, many of the images they had displayed had a great deal of appeal to me and I spent a fair amount of time just studying them, however from the view point of a contemporary digital photographer, if I were to shoot such images myself, I'd probably delete them thinking there was little point or perhaps that they lacked my personal sense of artistic flair (LOL). I guess this leads me to a few questions...
How many people out there do have a similar taste for old/vintage photography such as I've described here...and can you explain why? What's the appeal? I can't really explain my own fascination, so I'm curious if others have worked it out....
For those who do have such an appreciation, what do you think would create such an appeal with a vintage shot, that would be equally unappealing with more contemporary work? Is it just the "sense of history" or is there something more refined or subtle?
I don't think there's any real right or wrong here...I'm just curious about the views and opinions of others on this one...and sorry that got so long, but I wanted to give folks a proper frame of reference (slight pun intended).
I look forward to the responses!
Alrighty...this may sound kind of weird, but as a photographer who also happens to be an art lover, in recent years I've found myself studying (for lack of a better word) a lot of vintage photographs that I often see in places like restaurants or fast food chains. I will admit here that I do have a strong appreciation for nostalgia...I -LOVE- looking at images from bygone eras. Even before I started taking my own photography seriously (let alone considered it as something of a business), I often found myself looking at old pictures of, say amusement parks. Having grown up a native Ohio resident, there are a couple of long defunct amusement parks...older Ohio residents may remember the names "Euclid Beach", "Chippewa Lake" or even the more recently defunct "Geauga Lake". I have always found myself rather fascinated by images of these places. Even as a young kid, my family would go to Cedar Point (which MANY may have heard of) and stand around in their Town Hall, gazing at pictures of the park dating back as far as the late 1800's. And this doesn't apply to JUST amusement parks...I seem to have a fascination with old photos in general. I even have a really old shot of a couple standing in from of a car that I found in an OLD camera case I purchased at a thrift store. For all intensive purposes, it's just a snap shot and judging by the car in the background (not to mention the photo paper used) I'd put the image around the late 30's, early 40's. The picture is well framed, properly exposed, sharp, etc., however it's not really anything spectacular...it's just a couple standing in a driveway in front of a car, but I often find myself just staring at that shot. Something about that shot just captivates my attention whenever I look at it. I honestly can't say -why- such images have always fascinated me, only that they do.
Ok...reminiscent tangent aside....again been looking at a lot of images lately that I see in a lot of restaurants (I said this was gonna get weird, LOL). I'm talking about places like McD's, Dairy Queen, Waffle House, etc., etc.. In some cases, such as DQ and Waffle House, many of the pics are often little more than historic shots of the chains themselves...a local DQ for example has a fair number of pictures of various DQ's throughout the years, dating back to the company's establishment in the late 30's, with franchises that came about in the mid 40's and 50's. Again I can't say why exactly, but such images really seem to hold my attention. Some of the images are in fact quite interesting...a local Quizno's for example has a framed shot of a couple of guys on a ladder, loading some REALLY BIG rolls of cheese onto shelves for "aging"(and I mean BIG...talkin' rolls of mozzarella that look to be a good 6 feet wide!)...it's actually a rather fascinating image to look at. Likewise a local McD's had a shot of a couple on a motor scooter...it really has NOTHING to do with McD's, or even hamburgers, but it's a fun shot. That said however, not all such shots are really great...many are rather mundane and a few a pretty bad.
This is where we get to the point of this little ramble of mine...in another thread here on TPF, a user had posted a link to some vintage surfing photography, specifically "LeRoy Grannis. Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s" (here's the link). The first shot that came up was a wide shot of a beach...cars in the foreground, a few people on the beach in the mid ground and lots of surfers riding the waved in the background. On the one hand, I -really- love that image...it has a lot of visual interest for me (particularly with the vintage cars in the foreground...love that old Woodie down front there and the old VW "Bugs"!) and the rather subdued colors give it that "vintage feel"...I really stared at that shot for quite a while, which of course, is what good photography is all about. ON THE OTHER HAND, it also got me to thinking...always a dangerous thing...if I were to shoot such an image myself today, in all likelihood....I'd probably delete it. As a vintage photo, it has a great deal of appeal to me, however if this were shot in a contemporary setting, I would probably find myself wondering exactly what the point of such a shot is. Does that make sense??
This got me to thinking about a lot of other historic photos I've seen...for example a number of shots I was looking at earlier this summer at the Mohican Museum in Loudonville Ohio, where they built those old Flxible buses. Again in terms of vintage photography, many of the images they had displayed had a great deal of appeal to me and I spent a fair amount of time just studying them, however from the view point of a contemporary digital photographer, if I were to shoot such images myself, I'd probably delete them thinking there was little point or perhaps that they lacked my personal sense of artistic flair (LOL). I guess this leads me to a few questions...
How many people out there do have a similar taste for old/vintage photography such as I've described here...and can you explain why? What's the appeal? I can't really explain my own fascination, so I'm curious if others have worked it out....
For those who do have such an appreciation, what do you think would create such an appeal with a vintage shot, that would be equally unappealing with more contemporary work? Is it just the "sense of history" or is there something more refined or subtle?
I don't think there's any real right or wrong here...I'm just curious about the views and opinions of others on this one...and sorry that got so long, but I wanted to give folks a proper frame of reference (slight pun intended).
I look forward to the responses!