Within the Frame

David duChemin, one of my favorite photographic writers, has published a revision of the first of his books that I purchased, Within the Frame, and I am having the same problem I had with the original.

The photographs in both books are phenomenal, beautiful, insightful… but I cannot relate to them. David travels the world taking photographs. I joke about getting as far away as Conroe (which is about as much true as it is joke). I am never going to photograph a man performing his devotions in the Ganges, a camel herder in Kenya, a Monk in Tibet, or unlike Mad Carew, never steal the green eye of a little yellow god in Khatmandu. I have a difficult time relating to photographs that are beyond my realm of probability.

That does not denigrate the book, which in my opinion is one of the best texts on photography currently in publication. But it did make it very difficult for me to get interested in reading it. I owned the book for probably a year before I could even start it. It looks like I am going to have the same problem with the revision even though I have a pretty good idea that I am going to enjoy it immensely if I ever do start it. Just wish that David traveled more on the North American continent.
“No one cares if you create your photographs with a Canon or a Nikon; they care if the photograph moves them.” David duChemin, Within the Frame, page 43

…nor any of the other minutia we photographers get hung up on—just sayin'...