Depth of Field

For if not what else is there?

2011-11-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

This past year has been rough. Illness, a failed relationship and the rather crushing disappointment in the chosen career path have left me increasingly passionless. With no job, no boyfriend and living in the rather confined comfort of my childhood home I find myself disillusioned and preferring the companionship of my TV to that of my camera. I have considered myself a photographer for over a decade now. I can't remember ever wanting to do something else. But now in the moment when I should be starting my career I falter.

I was somewhere around the age of twelve and that another of my younger brother's Cub Scout functions. With my father as Den leader I spent more time as a pseudo-Boy Scout than with my own Girl Scout troop. But at this particular event my father handed me his camera. He wanted a picture of him with his den. I don't know if this is the first picture I ever took or why life chose this particular moment to define the rest of my life but it did. I took the simple snapshot and with a click decided my future.

Photography became my dream. I grew up a very shy and quiet child preferring to watch the chaos around me from the safety of a corner and the company of a good book. My love of fiction developed into a love of people watching. By connecting the people around me to the characters in my books I learned to read people. I began to see behind the masks we all wear. But I had no way to communicate what I saw. Photography gave me the voice I otherwise lacked.

Over time I realized that photography was a way I could help others communicate. We all have a story to tell and we all have voices but not all are suited for the mediums that speak to wide audiences. By translating their voice into photography I could help these people speak to the world.

At least these are the reasons I tell myself why I chose photography as my life. I fought to be this. But I have entered the role of career photographer during a time when the definition of photographer or photojournalist is ever changing. Many of us find ourselves adrift, desperately trying to nail down some sense of stability and identity. We are no longer just photographers but also specialize in videography, audio, web design and multimedia storytelling. In order to make it in this world you have to do it all. It is exhausting.

And that is where I find myself now. Tired and lost, trying to identify myself in a world where I no longer fit. I am a photographer. Somehow I have to find that again. Somehow I have to revive the passion that kept me going all these years. Somehow I have to make my dream a reality. For if not what else is there?

New website look

2011-07-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

Please checkout my new website, designed by the incredible Kathleen Stinson!

www.marymjones.com

What is a Photograph?

2011-07-13T21:04:00.000-04:00

What is a photograph? A photograph is a series of definitions. A photograph is a defined space: 35mm, medium or large format film. A photograph is a defined subject: person, place or thing. A photograph is a defined moment: 1/1000th of a second. It's this last definition that I'd like to focus on.

I've started my reading with Graham Clarke's The Photograph. He states that,

"The act of taking a photograph fixes time, but it also steals time, establishing a hold on the past in which history is sealed, so to speak, in a continuous present." (p.12)

Henri Cartier-Bresson called it the decisive moment. As photographers we decide the moment in time that is worth recording, essentially forever. We are 'stealing' that moment from its context of time and placing it within a new context of time that is always changing; the present.

The human brain does not view time in decisive moments but rather as a timeline of decisive moments. By separating one of these moments from it's original timeline we give that moment new meaning. We are now able to examine in detail that one particular moment. However, we lose the context of its past and future.

But the brain often still requires that original timeline in order to process a photograph's meaning. Hence the need for captions, titles, etc. This lack of context also encourages the viewer to bring his own definition of time to the photograph. One viewer with a great knowledge of WWII history can look at Joe Rosenthal's image of the flag raising on Iwo Jima and tell you the photograph's meaning in time. A person unschooled in WWII history could not do the same without the addition of captions or a title and even then he would still have 'holes' in the photograph's meaning to fill in with his own assumptions.

"It is in the end a sealed world to which we bring meaning; a complex play of presence and absence." (p.25)

As photographers then we decide what moments in time to preserve forever, knowing that they will never again be viewed in the same context or with the same meaning as when the photograph was taken. With this in mind we need to be cognizant of our 'decisive moments.' So ask yourself, before you click the shutter, is this moment worth living forever and does it have the strength to live without it's timeline?

Objectivity and Photojournalism

2011-06-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

"Photography is a live, contemporary method for recording the life around us, and through the choice of lens, camera, paper, subject matter, etc. one's own reaction to that life." -Willard Van Dyke

I've always had a slight problem with the idea of objective photography especially in regards to photojournalism. Complete objectivity does not exist, at least not in the realm where a conscious human being is able to make a choice. The photograph is subject to human decision. We as photographers decide the camera, the lens, the aperture, the shutter speed and for us old-schoolers the type of film. Our choices in the gear we choose alone affects greatly the outcome of the photographs we take. Ansel Adams would not have been Ansel Adams had he not chosen to work with an 8 X 10 camera set at an aperture of 64.

This idea of objectivity arises from the photojournalists' 'inability to create.' Mary Price writes, "…the photograph has the causal connection with the world of objects that allows it to hold in fixed form the piece of the world a photographer chooses and also restricts him to such a piece of the world. There are no unicorns in the photograph, and if one occurs, disbelief is imperative."1 As photojournalists we are only allowed to photograph what we see. This is what the public expects of us, as can be seen in the outrage that insues when an altered photograph has been posed as journalism.

Being restricted to reality does not rid one of subjectivity. Photographs are as Willard Van Dyke points out our reactions to life. To say that Photographer A is going to have the exact same reaction as Photographer B always and forever is to negate individuality. It is in individuality that subjectivity arises. Photographer A does not have the same history, schooling or personality as Photographer B. Therefore their photographs will be different.

In the end we decide what subject is important enough to take a photograph of. We decide where in our frame that subject will be placed. We decide which of the hundreds of photographs we take are worthy of being seen publicly. We decide. Though we may not make every single one of these decisions alone, in the end we still make them. And in the end even just one decision creates subjectivity.

1 Price, Mary. The Photograph: A Strange Confined Space. Stanford (Calif.): Stanford UP. 1994

The New Philosophy

2011-06-01T21:12:00.000-04:00

During my senior year in college I took two art history classes, Philosophy of Art and History of Photography, taught by Dr. Kim Grant. This was not the first time I had taken a class with Professor Grant and I absolutely loved her teaching style. Simple, direct and thought provoking. Perfect.

I loved these two classes. They opened my eyes to questions concerning photography that I had never considered. Is photography objective? How does context affect the understanding of a photograph's message? Where's the line between art and journalism? Is there a line? And on and on. I read article after article by famous photographers and critics such as Susan Sontag, Lewis Hine and Alfred Stieglitz. Before long the readings and class discussions began to be reflected in my work culminating in my capstone project focused on the context within the physical boundaries of a photograph. I had found my element.

I have never been a technical minded individual. I may be the most computer savvy in my family but ask me what sensor is in my D700 and I couldn't tell you. Philosophy, art and literature have always been my bent. When I went to the Newhouse School at Syracuse University I was immersed in the technical. My two best friends were gear heads, my classes were all about learning software and the ins and outs of video and audio equipment. I was overwhelmed and though I am extremely thankful for the education I received I also felt I had lost the major motivation behind my love for photography.

I am now dedicating myself and this blog to finding that motivation again. I still have those readings I poured over in college so once a week I will find something to read and then discuss the questions that arise. I've found that there's a certain lack of understanding in the world of commercial and journalistic photography about our history as photographers. We are extremely concerned with the events of the present day and those of the future. But how do we know where to go next if we don't know where we came from? How do we know the impact of our work if we've never questioned the language that we speak with? I want to inject this industry of ours with a little more understanding of something other than the technical.

Wish me luck!

2010-01-18T23:46:00.003-05:00

The website is live. Special thanks to Patrick Stinson, Professor Stephen Masiclat, Wasim Ahmad and Brad Winkelmann.

MJones Photography

2010-01-18T23:21:00.008-05:00

Here are some photos that I shot over the past month or so. I'm looking at branching into photographing outdoor activities such as rock/ice climbing and mountaineering. In the images is Patrick Stinson.

Cascade Mountain, Adirondack Park, New York

Tinker Falls, New York

2009-12-17T13:45:00.003-05:00

Snake Oil Glass Works

Phil Austin is a traditional off-hand glass artist out of Skaneateles, NY. He makes everything from paper weights to vases to artistic lighting fixtures.

2009-10-19T21:28:00.001-04:00

Newly revised edition of Jared Mulcahy.

2009-10-14T20:27:00.003-04:00

This piece was created for PHO 500 Advanced Multimedia with Professor Bruce Strong.

Michael and Winifred Bixler Press and Letterfoundry

2009-10-14T20:25:00.001-04:00

Check out my fire photos published by the National Park Service. FIRE NEWS

2009-10-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

News10 Now covers the Fall Workshop.

2009-09-28T23:28:00.005-04:00

Jared Mulcahy

This is from The Fall Workshop that I participated in this past weekend in Skaneateles, NY. The Fall Workshop is put on by the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Each year a local town is chosen and highlighted. Students spend one weekend creating picture/multimedia stories and still photographs. They are coached by professionals from The Washington Post, The Newark Star-Ledger and National Geographic to name a few. The experience is an intense sleep/food deprived, extreme learning environment. But it is one of the better experiences of my graduate career. Go to thefallworkshop.com in the next week or so to check out other student content that was generated.

2009-09-14T11:23:00.001-04:00

Some amazing photos from the Station Fire in southern California. This is eventually what I hope to shoot.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/wildfires_in_southern_californ.html

2009-09-13T00:04:00.003-04:00

Wildland Firefighters from Saratoga National Historical Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, Acadia National Park, New York State Rangers and Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission carry out a prescribed burn on a field at the Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater, NY on September 9, 2009. Prescribed burns are used to clear fields of invasive plant species and keep vistas open. I plan to continue working with the park service's wildland fire management as part of my master's project for Newhouse. This was my first time out on a fireline. The experience taught me a lot about the difficulties I'm going to face and what I need to do to prepare. Cords are not practical for the field nor is the Marantz's levels screen. In daylight the levels hardly show up at all and cords trip one up quickly. I have till spring before there'll be anymore burns so I have plenty of time to gear myself up for the next round.

To see more photos check out my Flickr page.

2009-09-07T18:13:00.002-04:00

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.
If it were merely challenging that would be no problem.
But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to change the world and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day.

-E.B. White