If Shakespeare was alive today...

S

Spluff

Saras
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Would he use a Rangefinder? Would he ponder the permanence of photographs or the impermanence of the moment we captured? Would he delight in different focal lengths to tell the same story in many different ways, or how aperture changes our perspective? And how we manipulate light, not through imagery with words, but through the materials we use. Would he be any less an artist or a greater one with a camera?

A few weeks ago one of our members mentioned on a thread that they had nobody to pass their stories on to, or to share the images they had made. I cannot get that thought out of my mind, and I am now left wondering, for whom do I take pictures for? Like a character in a Shakespearean play, where before there was playful delight, there is now ambiguity, uncertainty and rhetorical contemplation.

And so I think of all the great literary geniuses over the centuries. What would Dante, or de Cervantes, or Voltaire or Goethe or Tanizaki do with their camera? What meaning would they give to their lives, what would they be saying to us?

I ask, what meaning do you get from capturing that moment and who do you do it for?
 
I suppose I do it for me, partly to see if I could produce some decent photos, partly 'cos I like fiddling with things and buttons, dials and rings can be fiddled with.

I like to think that I could, possibly, get some good shots and then perhaps I wouldn't necassarily be so reluctant to show them to anyone as I am now.

So I suppose in the end, it could partly be about improving myself in some way.
 
I've been thinking about this a little bit, and I reckon that if ol' Willy was to take photos, like his plays they would often be inspired by the work of other photographers, his photos would probably be better than theirs and probably be difficult to follow.

If Nietzsche was to take photos, like the "supermen" in his books they wouldn't obey any of the usual rules or conventions and no-one would have any ruddy idea what they were about.
 
I presume authors and poets, etc., would probably use images in the way cinematographers would use images, especially in the silent era, to show something which their words couldn't show for some reason, to add an extra dimension to their work.
 
If Shakespeare were alive, he'd be making cat videos on his cell phone, like most folks. His genius was verbal, not visual!
(Nothing wrong with cat videos, mind you!)
 
Retro-Grouch said:
If Shakespeare were alive, he'd be making cat videos on his cell phone, like most folks. His genius was verbal, not visual!
(Nothing wrong with cat videos, mind you!)
Click to expand...

Taking that a step further, his videos would feature many cats, each with distinct and eloquent vocalizations and flawed personas, each hoping to attain some lofty morsel.

But if he were to use a camera, I’m certain it would be a Leica III.
 
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