Perhaps no one else made similar images and he was discovered, made popular through patrons. Do not throw away your ULF images of McDonalds.Originally Posted by mdm
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Perhaps no one else made similar images and he was discovered, made popular through patrons. Do not throw away your ULF images of McDonalds.
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Why is the "why" important at all? I almost never know why I am taking a picture. If I thought about it too much in advance I would break the spell and talk myself out of clicking the shutter in the first place. My impulse to photograph is separate from my intellect. That's part of the appeal for me.
J.
If you don't know why a scene moves you, how can you possibly make decisions on how to photograph it. What to include, what to exclude, hat camera position, what aperture,... sure, you can go ahead and make a photo with ou that understanding, but you'll be lucky to be successful, if you can even define.success. I can randomly press keys on a piano but I would be lucky if the notes turn out to be music.
It isn't a matter of thinking too much. It is a matter of being in touch with your feelings to know what moves you. I don't sit there and ponder a scene. I have learned how to recognize what and why I want to photograph. It happens quickly. And often part of that includes recognizing that the scene can move me more by waiting for better light. If I wasn't in touch with what moved me about a scene I would have now way to know when to trip the shutter to make the best photograph possible. Or with a portrait knowing when to trip the shutter to get the best expression for the photo I want to make.
I am a former graduate student with a PhD in history, and I think Mark Sawyer's comments about playing by the school's rules are good advice. If the goal is to learn and obtain a diploma, then fighting the system is not very helpful. There were times I just said to myself, "Okay, I'll play their silly game, but will go my own way once I have that diploma."
Even so, it might be helpful to go see faculty members and talk about the issue. They may agree with you--and they recognize which students use art-speak as a smokescreen to hide a lack of genuine creativity and vision.
But deep inside me is the sense that successful photographers and other artists are able to talk honestly and openly about their own work and motivations in a way that makes sense to whatever kind of audience they are addressing. School is a good time to develop that ability, and it is a worthwhile goal.
Keith
Not sure, but I've been doing it this way for over 35 years.
I've never claimed to be successful, so you may be on to something there....sure, you can go ahead and make a photo with ou that understanding, but you'll be lucky to be successful, if you can even define.success.
J.
We all know the story about Ansel Adams and Moonrise, where he saw a scene, realized that he had only minutes to get the image before the light would no longer be on the cemetery crosses, knew from experience the luminance of the moon, and managed to set up his camera and get the shot before the light left the crosses. Now in those few minutes, do we think AA analyzed what it was about the image that appealed to him, or thought about what he wanted to say? Obviously I don't know the answers to those questions, but my hunch is that he saw an image that struck him, and he made the photograph simply because it "looked good." Even though I have seen that picture a lot of times, both in actual AA prints and in books, I still couldn't tell you what it says, but it is an image that many of us enjoy. Now to me as an East Coast resident, it an image that typifies the "Old West" and a wonderful, somewhat exotic, landscape, but since AA lived in that landscape, who knows if he had a different message, or any message, in mind?
I would guess that Ansel knew very well why that scene moved him. He was skilled enough that it was instantaneous, and was practiced enough technically to know what lens to use to frame the shot (exclude elements that did not support his feelings) and the other settings. Don't take what do you want to say too literally. But if you do t know why a scene moves you, how do you make good decisions for making the photo, and how can you expect the viewer to be moved?
Don't change and I know you won't.
I also know what I like, after I see it...meaning your work.
Tin Can
Yo yo ma: you don't play music for perfection. The point of music is to make someone feel..
how do you make so eone feel about something if you are not in tune with how you feel about it?
Well, I've done it a lot, and don't think it's such an odd practice. You do what feels right and hope for the best. Your feelings and intuitions are probably informed by a lot of experience (and thinking about that experience) so it's not like this is actually a naive process. You didn't pop out of the womb and pick up the camera.
I think it's later on, when you have enough pictures to start crafting a body of work, when the kind of clarity and articulation you're talking about becomes important. It's a rare genius who can shape a coherent body of work without thinking clearly about it.
I'm usually working on something that's new to me, and I'm trying to stretch myself. So it's not so surprising that it might take a while to figure out just what's attracting me, and what's going on on all those different layers.
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