I just uploaded some of my photos from Holy Week in my Flickr account and I’m pretty proud of how these photos turned out. If you know me well, you’d know that our family, like many other Filipino families, go back to our province in Nueva Ecija during this particular week every year to observe the traditions of Semana Santa. This place, these events, and the statue of the Virgin Mary and the stories that our elders passed on to us, have all inspired a few essays and short stories in the past. I’ll probably be posting one I’ve written recently in my Wordpress soon.
Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean by yllanna on Flickr.
One of my friends was talking to me yesterday about photography and how important composition was in conveying messages to viewers. He said that photographs should have meanings, that pictures of feet and Tumblr-ish photos didn’t really say much.
I agree, but only to some point. Photography is an art, and all art has meaning in some way. But one of the primary functions of art is to attract the senses. Aesthetics is just as important as meaning - the paintings we hang on our walls are just as much meant for decoration as they are for portraying some social condition. So what if some photos are “just” Tumblr-worthy? Do they really have less worth than the covers of National Geographic? What about the Dadaists — their work had no meaning (supposedly), but why are they still considered art?
“To be poor in New York was humiliating, a little, to be young - to be young was divine.” (Keith Gessen, All the Sad Young Literary Men)
Hi, Ilyana! Your photos are amazing :)
(via inthewilde)
