The Photographic Tyranny of the Modern World

I was out the other night picking up pizza with my brother, we were driving west into a gorgeous sunset, with lots of yellows and reds in the clouds, against skies ranging from ultramarine to a jade green, lasted for about 45 minutes as it transitioned into the dark purple and finally black of night... or as black as it gets here in the city ;(but that is another blog) all the while I was in pain, not because I didn't have my camera, that was not the issue, but it was the unsightly collection of business buildings, and high rise apartments, as well as the criscrossing lines that cut across the roads and from building to building marred the view of the sunset... I even said so to my brother, culminating in this outburst, "WHY did God waste such a beautiful sunset on such a dreary fore ground; no artist in his right mind would paint such a scene...!!!"





This is a recurring 'problem' for me as a photographer, the intrussion that man made creations have on the scenery that is God's creation, which is what I am trying to capture before it all dissapears under a network of wires, buildings, concrete and ashphalt...here are two examples, the after and the before, of taking out a little bit of Man's Stuff to enhance a picture... there is a debate about this sort of manipulation, rightly so in the case of reporting photography, and images to sell products or ideas, but it has extended into any photography, "when is manipulation, a lie and not 'REAL' photographic art..."

Photographers have been manipulting their photos since the first one entered the first dark room... working out ways of enhancing their art as it developed in the fluids or was projected on the photographic paper... learnt some of the tricks when I was first introduced to the art... in some countries, there were whole industries dedicated to deleting people and buildings from newspaper photos during the so called Cold War...

the above example took approximately an hour to do, perhaps a bit longer... to do a massive intrusion as in the sunset, would be enourmously exhausting in time and effort... the only conclusion I came to, is that I can take the pictures, and reflect on God's creativeness, and suck up the pain... but then hope and plan for pictures that limit the amount of Man's creativeness that marrs God's... what else can I do, while living inside of man's creation... The Modern World...