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TANGENTS

Passion in

Art and Life

BYIHTISHAM KABIR
The other day, a photographer friend and I were discussing landscape photographers. My friend compared Ansel Adams to the lesser-known Wynn Bullock. He said that while Ansel Adams wrote very passionately about photography, his well-composed, formal photographs lacked passion. However, Bullock's photographs were full of passion.
I immediately thought of Beethoven and Mozart. Both were brilliant composers, of course, and created beautiful music. Yet, for me, there is a difference in passion between the two composers’ music, particularly their piano concertos. The concertos of Beethoven communicate fierce passion. On the other hand I find Mozart's concertos, though superbly constructed, are not as passionate as Beethoven's.
Then my thoughts wandered into passion in life and art.
The dictionary defines passion as "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.” Lovers feel it most, of course, but passion can also feed our activities that help us reach greatness, such as in sports or in entrepreneurship. Sometimes, though, passion often steamrolls over logic and reason while causing pain and suffering: hence, "crime of passion."
But is there a difference between feeling passion in life and creating art that communicates passion? An example would be a particular moment when we feel passionate and try to capture our feeling with the camera. Does the photograph capture our passion? Often the answer is "no."
So it seems that feeling passion, while being a prerequisite, is not enough to create passionate work.
How, then, does an artist imbue their work with passion?
It seems to me that a certain amount of courage is required. When
you feel passionate, you can stray from the well-defined and routine to take a chance and try to "frame" your passion into tangible art. Much hard work is also needed. For example, Bullock wanted to communicate his passion for nature's splendours through his photographs. He often worked brutally long hours - particularly dawn and twilight - trying to capture light that expressed what he felt in his heart.
Obviously, you have to pay attention to technique and understand the effect of an ingredient or style in your artwork on your audience.
There are many artists who we associate with passion. For example, Vincent van Gogh, whose paintings continue to mesmerize us centuries after his death, cut off his own ear in a fit of passion. The movies of Ken Russell are passionately made, sometimes overloading the audience. Picasso, enraged by the Fascist bombing of Guernica, translated his passion into his amazing painting.
Too much passion can become a problem. The great photographer W. Eugene Smith created classic photo-essays for Life magazine, including “Country Doctor" and "Spanish Village." Smith was passionate about his work and forcefully communicated that passion through his photographs, to great effect. Later in life he started a large photographic project on the city of Pittsburgh, USA. However, his passion got the better of him. He continued to work night and day for many months and shot thousands and thousands of photographs. Eventually the project buckled under the weight of Smith's passion.
I leave you with a question: whose songs have more passion, Nazrul's or Tagore's?
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