Mundane Subjects

Are there really mundane subjects in photographs? To be mundane or not to be mundane is really relative to the artist's life experience. I think what allows certain artists to bring a mundane subject to life is of course, how he or she looks at it, not the object itself. Taking past life experience and applying it to the subject in a personal way is what defines how the subject will come alive. 

I mean, if you take the entire human race as a whole, with all of its cumulative perspectives and points of view, I think it might be safe to say that there are NO mundane subjects at all.  Anywhere.

Which brings up another thought. Guys like Ansel are pretty cool, because they so perfectly bring their vision to us and make us see things in new and amazing ways. But I think there's a negative side to these great artists also: They tend to force us to believe that their vision is the ultimate, the best way, the only way. And some of us run in circles, trying to see if WE can do what they did, rather than acting on our own unique visions. Well yeah, it's a difficult thing to do, to create a new "universal" vision. But who says it has to be universal? I think there are many potential artists out there who will never try at all because they're so worried that they'll never be able to compete with the big guys, and that's really a sad thing. 

JT