Jeff Latham
The Daily
Senior
University of Washington
On display this week is an image by Jeff Latham. The photo has no caption information attached to it so I’m going to assume that this is a found feature of a female student tossing a Frisbee, or as it’s called in newspaper captions a “flying disc”, on campus of a college on a warm Spring afternoon.
This photo is very reminiscent of most of the pictures I made early in my career. Having an art background and being quite timid, I started out making mostly graphic images where the subjects in my photos, if there actually were people in them, weren’t personalities but props, framing devices and compositional elements. Still to this day, it’s hard for me to pass up a silhouette, a reflection, a shadow or any other graphic enabler that is commonly referred to as a gimmick.
I guess I’ll explain what I think a gimmick is. A gimmick is a technique employed by photographers to spice up a situation that lacks content and if not used would result in a boring image. Other photo tricks that sometimes are considered gimmicky are pans, tilts and zoom blurs. In the wrong hands, holgas, lens babies, Polaroid cameras and other non-traditional tools can land a photographer knee deep in gimmick-ville.
Of course some of history’s greatest images have used one or more of these techniques so I’m not discounting them. Actually, I urge young photographers to explore and master every possible technique. One can never have enough ammunition in their creative arsenal.
As for Mr. Latham’s photo, it’s visually pleasing and would serve as a fine piece of standalone art in a publication. The placing of the sun behind the main subject’s head, the timing of the throw, the angle of the disc mimicking the tree line and the supporting background information make this photograph a successful image. Compositionally, it is well balanced although I wish there was a bit more room below the subject’s foot at the bottom. It is a fine photo for what it is.
But, what it is, is a quick disposable moment that leaves me feeling a bit empty. My eye takes a look around and is quickly satisfied that it has discovered everything of interest in the image. There is no connection to the subject and the supporting characters consist of a group of people with their backs to the camera.
As a fast feature, this photo accomplishes its objective but if the goal is anything greater than that, this image falls short.
