Magnum Stories; Abbas

I have just managed to drag my new copy of Magnum stories into the room, man its sooo heavy.....

The photo essay by Abbas is the first in the book.  His explanatory text is relatively short and there are some real gems in it.  Like diamonds sprinkled in the dust.

"  there are two ways to think of photography:  one is writing with light, and the other is drawing with light.  The school of Henri Cartier-Bresson, they draw with light. They sketch with light.  the single image is paramount for them.  For me that was never the point.  My pictures are always part of a series, an essay.  each picture should be good enough to stand on its own, but its value is as part of something larger".

Now if that doesn't explain narrative I don't know what does.

Also this;

"I rarely think about the sequence when I am shooting"

This is interesting to me as I have tried to almost make up the narrative sequence and then go looking for the pictures that fit.  I have found that it doesn't work this way round and that I need to go out and look through the view finder, being free of any constraints.

This next quote, I think, is very incisive;

" I am among the generation of photographers who believe a picture is sacred.  that once you take, it that's it.  You don't crop it, you don't touch it, you don't fool around with it.  You might use it or not use it but that's something else."

The digital age has changed that sacrosanctity.  Now we have the leisure to shoot, shoot, shoot.  There is definitely an upside this, but it can get in the way of looking.  Also in terms of altering a photo digital does give the feeling that we can crop or Photoshop an image on the computer later.  I have heard the accusation many times about digital that it can make a mediocre photo good.  Now personally I do not think this is the case.  I think the error is that it takes the photographers emphasis away from looking at the scene in front of him or her because we are under the illusion that we can crop or edit it later as well as the fact that we have a huge amount of shots on a memory card now whereas with film we had 36 shots then change the roll.  But I take his point.