I recently came across Paul Strand’s image ‘Door Latch, Stockburger’s Farm, East Jamaica, Vermont’. It grabbed me immediately. A beautiful image and made me think back to one of mine. Without wanting to compare myself with Strand (?!) I thought it might be interesting to consider what it was I liked about the two images since their subject matter is hardly inspiring and I still hadnt resolved to myself why I’d taken the image I had, why I found it interesting enough to take the image.

Lets start with Paul Strand’s image. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to reproduce it here so here is the link https://images.app.goo.gl/TJmiypC7n1pdZFr68

I love wood and the beauty of the grain here shines through because of the quality and angle of the light. That knot on the left of the image looks like an eye looking around the edge of the piece beside it and the hole behind the horizontal piece of wood could be a mouth. The metalwork in the image adds a little honesty and context but overall its the wonderful tones and 3-dimensional grain that shows up and demands the attention and gives a feeling of rusticity and manual grafting on a farm.

My image doesnt compare, the lighting isnt as good for one, but it immediately sprang to mind when I saw Strand’s image.

Again, I love the grain of the wood, the bolts and padlock and that clasp going across the centre of the image. For some reason on the day it spoke to me, I found it interesting but I didnt know why. I nearly didnt take the picture because I couldnt explain why it interested me and why should I be interested by such a mundane subject?! But I was told ‘If its interested you enough to stop just take the image, what do you have to lose?’ so I did. And I have been glad I did ever since because I still like the image, but I still cant explain why. It makes me feel better to see that such a subject can be considered worthwhile material for an image by such luminaries as Strand. And perhaps now I can spend some time to figure out why it appeals….