Capa and Arc of Intent.
Hi Guys
If you take, I think it was Cappa’s shot of the D day landings in WW2 were there is an blurred image of an American wading through the water, you can’t say that it was his intent to grab that image like that I would imagine he was dodging bullets but a powerful image just the same. The visual impact of an image is the most important consideration.
Rickster
Rick,
André Freidman, a.k.a., Robert Capa, wasn’t a tourist taking snapshots but an artist maneuvering his perspective and framing to get us the full presence of what he was embedded amongst.
When I talk about "The Arc of Intent" this is not meant to describe the great picture or define it. Rather it refers to a process where the experience and meanings in the work of a photographer get embedded into a delivered image, so bring part of that vision and evoked feelings to the viewer.
In Capa's work, he was for sure dodging bullets, but the camera was an extension of his mind. He put himself in a place and position to view what he shot and what he thought was important to transmit. That started "The Arc of Intent". And in this particular case it works. When we look at the pictures, we are there with real life in the battlefield.
Once Capa (or his editor) looked at his own pictures and like them, just for that the Arc, as I described it, is complete and it is now unimportant whether or not it works for anyone else as far a that process is concerned!
When we look at Capa'a work and also get some of those strong feelings and emotional reactions and more so think about the boys there and the destruction and consequences of war or no war, the work of Capa, transcends the individual image and becomes art. That Capa'a work symbolizes that period and what we did and how he recorded it, the work becomes iconic.
However, all that is
after the simple creation was completed when Capa successfully transmits his unique vision. This, in itself merely finishes the physical embedding of Cappa’s concepts.
My theoretical construct, "Arc of Intent", does
not imply art worthy to see or collect. Rather the path to get there.
Capa's work, I contend did employ "Intent" since he had an impression of the war, destruction and devastation and its effect on the men
wished and
worked to embed this in all in his images of the battlefield. Hence an “Arc of Intent” was initiated.
It had to have Cappa's brain in between the eye and the shutter release. The brain brought to the choices of how to make the picture all Capa's experience, skills, culture, education and esthetic sense and in a split second! So he definitely did have a process in his brain that influenced
how and
when he took the picture. That is
the process by which art can and might be created.
This is very different from a picture like a snapshot on vacation, where all that is needed is proof that we had fun. Of course that too could be iconic but not necessarily creative.
Asher