This is one of Vienna’s more famous places, “Strudlhofstiege”, known from the novel “Die Strudlhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre” by Heimito von Doderer. We are currently in the process of reorganizing our company, and I had been nearby for a workshop.
This piece of architecture must have been photographed to death, so can you really make photos here? Does it make sense? It’s a a situation that is a bit like Yellowstone. You may have read Mark Hobson ranting about people photographing there and taking all the well-known images, the Ansel views. Of course Mark mostly rants about those who go to Yellowstone (or Zabriskie Point, Antelope Canyon, etc) exactly to take just those pictures from just those views. Here I came by anyway, and being there I made an image. But still, the question remains: Can we do that? Should we do that? Can it possibly do any good? Can it even be satisfying to the photographer?
Well, claiming ignorance, I prefer not to care. Why should I? All of Europe is full of such “famous views”. If I were to avoid those places or only to try not to take pictures taken before, I could as well give up photographing at all. I know there have been taken photographs of those places, but I have not taken them. Whatever others have done, my photos are my views. If sometimes they happen to be someone else’s views as well, I can live with it 😄
The Song of the Day is “Step By Step” from the soundtrack to “The Preacher’s Wife”. See a video on YouTube.
Markus (2010-08-04)
D'accord. Why should we care if one or 1 gazillion images have been made with this subject, as long as our vision can express itself therein. I think all the pictures we create are part ouf our learning path as well as our life, and there is only a small number of people I would care to discuss this topic with.
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