This one by Raymond Moore, the ‘go-between’ …
Raymond Moore is a bit of an enigma. Not well-known during his lifetime, his pictures have inspired many for the observational skills he brings. If asked about which photographers to study to learn about observation, Moore would certainly feature on my list, as would Minor White, Andrew Sanderson and Cartier-Bresson.
As Alfrey has said, ‘Instead of atmosphere, spirit of place, heightened moments of awareness and reflections on antiquity and ruin, we get an emphasis on the mundane, the overlooked, the nondescript’ 1. We also get a sense of space and geometry in his compositions that make you want to linger.
I think Moore’s view of the subject side of photography (the photographer), rather than the object side that is being fashioned into a picture, is particularly interesting:
‘ I’m violently against self-expression ……I’m just a go-between, things discover me, I don’t discover them. But in them I can find myself and grow….its a kind of recognition.’ 2
There is a sense that pictures are given to us as opposed to being ‘taken’ by us. All we do is to wait for the most auspicious moment.
A good place to visit to read about Moore and see his work is here.
- Alfrey, N., (2011) Romanticism gets real, British Landscape Photography: Tate etc issue 21 Spring 2011. Online Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/romanticism-gets-real ↩
- Moore, R. (1977a) Interview with Turner, P. Creative Camera Yearbook 1977. Available at: http://www.fine-photographs.co.uk/index.php/display-as-list/70-creative-Anne Giddings 423708 16 Landscape assignment 4camera-yearbook-1977 ↩
