Damien Demolder considers... Assembled Company, Sunrise, Corfe Castle, by John Copley
Photography is not the only area in which originality is held up as an indication of merit. There are many other art forms that regard the generation of new ideas as a great thing, and those who generate them as masters. It is true too that in life generally we glorify those who come up with fresh ways of thinking, who stand out and those who diverge from the norm in what we consider a positive direction.
Many of us may spend a little longer worrying not so much about originality but rather a lack of it, and that through our photographic art we are saying nothing new or of any interest – nothing that will draw the adoring attention of the world. Feeling that we have nothing original to say, and no new way of expressing our nothing in a visually arresting manner, could understandably lead us down the road of depression, a crisis of confidence and to question why we even bother taking pictures at all.
Pit of despair
I say ‘understandably’ perhaps to normalise the way I have felt on many occasions when I have fallen into a pit of artistic despair. What is the point in taking pictures, I ask myself, if they aren’t going to stand out as something fresh, novel, innovative and ground-breaking?
John Copley gives us a very clear answer to that question in this delightful picture taken during sunrise at Corfe Castle. On this particular day John got up slightly before he went to bed and, on checking the weather was on track to deliver the ‘Corfe Castle + mist + sunrise’ picture he had always wanted to shoot, set off to arrive in prime position for 5am. Having climbed West Hill however, he discovered that he wasn’t the only person willing to go to such lengths, and was confronted with the sight of about a dozen others lined up for the same shot.
If you have also gone to great lengths to shoot a famous landmark from a well-known position you may well be familiar with such a situation, and the sense of amazement/ disappointment that you aren’t the only lunatic prepared to leave a warm bed for the sake of an amazing photo opportunity.
In my earlier days this sort of thing would annoy me. I’d question what right the others had to ‘my’ scene and to what extremes I’d have to go that I might ensure the place to myself. How is a man supposed to take an original picture in such common company? Just by their presence they stole any chance of my creating anything unique!
These days I’m rather pleased to see other phot
