Lens-Artists Challenge #323: Silence

Lens-Artists Challenge #323: Silence

This week I've been unashamedly lazy with my entry to the Lens-Artists Challenge. Circumstances have dictated that I can't really get out this week, a combination of working on the house and the dull weather, but that's given me an opportunity to review a few of my favourite images.

This week, Egídio of Capturing My World Through Brazilian Eyes was tasked with setting the theme for the Challenge and he has chosen, 'Silence' (https://throughbrazilianeyes.com/lens-artists-challenge-323-silence/). Egídio cited the work of American photographer Robert Adams, who has spent decades documenting the natural and urban landscapes of the United States. In the book of his work, American Silence, Adams captures what he calls 'the silence of light' and Egídio identifies themes of Environmental Change, the Subject, a Form of Protest and the Silence of the Viewer in Adams's timeless images of urban sprawl, strip malls, highways, and the American landscape.

This week, Egídio asks us to 'explore how we see silence in photography', and for me there's no better example than the beach. I've mentioned it before, but 'our' beach in Portugal, near the village of Meco, is accessible only by clambering down a cliff or from the beaches either side. As a result it's relatively peaceful compared to the nearby beaches of the Praia do Meco or the resort beaches of Cascais towards Lisbon. For the past few years I've been documenting the beach from the top of the cliff in a minimalist style, recording an or near empty beach, the sea and the sky, which for me is the ultimate expression of silence in photography. 

This past year I posted one of my minimalist images on social media and someone commented that it was similar to the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto, a Japanese photographer and architect who has spent decades travelling the world and recording seascapes. 'Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security,' says Sugimoto  on his website, 'as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing.' Sugimoto's images evoke a sense of serenity and silence, and I hope that my images of the beach might produce similar emotions in the viewer.

That said, I also feel that a more 'violent' landscape can also evoke silence and occasionally, when the clouds roll in, the serenity of the Praia do Rio da Prata is transformed into a kaleidoscope of light and shadow. 

So now, whenever we go to any beach I try to take at least one minimalist landscape of the beach, sea and sky. The featured image on this post is actually from our recent holiday to the Maldives and this was one of the few days that we were greeted with a near cloudless sky. The image below was taken from the speedboat as we were transported to the airport. I could never get over the blue of the sea and although we were deafened by the motors of the boat there's still a feeling of serenity about the view.

Just to finish the post I have included an urban expression of silence, from the Estação de Oriente in Lisbon taken as we were waiting for the train to take us home. 

Next week's Challenge should be interesting. Patti of pilotfishblog will be proposing and In The Details challenge, photographing a subject  from three different  perspectives. Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the 'Snapshot' WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com@keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.

#Beach, #Silence, #Adams, #Sugimoto, #LensArtists, Lens-Artists, #Praia, #Sea, #Agua, #Sky, #Blue, #Sunset, #Sand, #Areia, #SummerInMeco, #Ferias, #Challenge,