You are doing OK until you start titling your photos "Homage to....."
You are doing OK until you start titling your photos "Homage to....."
I think we get too caught up in worrying about "things." We worry if we are copying other photographers. We worry about d-max. We worry about shadow detail. We even worry about danged shadows. If Edward Weston had allowed his obsession about that shadow on Charis' nude to dominate his thinking, I would have missed out on one of my favorite photographs. I'm sure that image has been used intuitively in some of my efforts, but I never set out to duplicate it. We are a product of our environment, and we can't escape that fact. Who knows what influence classical music had on Ansel Adams' intuition while peering through ground glass. Songwriters constantly talk about borrowing ideas, themes, etc., from novelists, and they aren't castigated for following in someone else's foot steps. I say stop worrying so much about tiny details. (Although I agree about making homage in your titles.) Enjoy your work, learn from mistakes and persevere. If you are satisfied with your efforts, carry on. Eventually, your vision will mature into an individual style.
I agree with Bruce. If we get too caught up in whether or not we're doing this or that, I think it can stiffle creative energy. Everyone is a unique entity and can see the world in a special way. Sure, some photos might look a bit like this person's or that person's, but that's cool. I think if we just keep doing what we want, proceeding intuitively, and having a good time (except maybe when you have to finally start tackling that growing pile of undeveloped film!), good stuff just kind of happens.
Chris
www.jordanphoto.com
You're just too dad gummed edumacated. Don't think too much. You've obviously done your scales so, as Louis Armstrong said, "just blow, baby!" There are too many variables involved in the process of making a good photograph. All the things you mention should and should be allowed to inform your vision and process. Critiquing yourself is healthy. Don't reverse engineer yourself or censor yourself into entropy. Ground breaking and paradigm shifting work still relies on antecedents.
Another thought provoking question. Thank you. My 2 cents:
I have been looking at Micheal Kenna's work recently at his web site and at the AIPD shows. It is very popular, sells very well. Just about all the major galleries carry his work. However, to look at it, some images are quite wonderful. One in particular I like is of a huge chess board inlaid on a walk way by the sea, shot against an ominous cloudscape. But other images look like 1st year student's work.
I have not seen one print larger then 8x10, most are 8x8 and smaller, mounted on 14x17 or 14x18 boards. They sell for over $1000.00. Apparently he uses mostly, if not exclusively, 2 1/4 square format. I do not know what materials he uses, nor do I really care. His images are sharp focus front to back. His print quality from a technical stand point, is not always perfect, yet perfect enough to express what he wants to say. He travels the world, to many exotic places, takes pictures, sells them, and apparently lives the life style many can only dream of using a very simplistic approach.
So what's the point? His approach looks to be that of Steiglitz, or even Weston, that is, "less is more," simplicity of equipment so to free one for creativity. For Weston, it was an 8x10, lugging that monster along with a huge, surveyors sized tripod, where ever he needed it, and was nimble enough and intuitive enough with it to shoot head shots, and even a man urinating. Just how long does it take to pee?
When it comes to equipment, you have to use what frees one up for what is important, taking meaningful pictures. Your equipment should be an extension of your mind and vision and used as a tool to convey what you see to the viewing auidience. Equipment and it's use has to be intuitive, if not, maybe it's time for a change.
After you've read enough art and photo books, and enough years have gone by, you'll find it difficult to look at *any* image and not see connections and similarities with something else. I'm not saying every photograph has already been made, but the "prior art" is damn substantial. Odds are that whatever image you make, there's some form of clone somewhere. You may never see it, but it's out there. So what to do? I gave up worrying about it. Shoot what you feel like shooting. Wanna copy a shot you admire, fine. You're subconciously using ideas from other images for every shot you take anyway. True creativity doesn't mean that every image is completely unconnected with anything that's come before.
I would never claim that color photographs are "easier" to take, but I think color sometimes takes away from the impact and isolation of what photographs can bring to a subject. I personally think black and white nudes can be form and beauty without being invasively real. Textures and form enhanced by light and shadow are what black and white are all about. I really like the substance of portraits for the same reason. Is it a tradition to shoot large format black and white. Sure. I am lucky to own a Weston (Cole print) which I bought when I was a starving student. I have it hanging in my hall where it is not exposed to direct sunlight or harsh elements and I look at this print at least 4 times a week. Not because it is a Weston, but because I am always drawn to it and amazed at what is not in it and the attention to detail that is there. It is technically startling to me. 25 years and I still enjoy this photo. I have ONE of my own I love this much. I think this print would have died in color. Edward Weston's color was not anything like the black and white. Why large format? I think you would not be on this forum if you did not appreciate the potential and impact of a contact printed negative. It ISN'T the same as an enlargement. No one in their right mind would haul around an 8x10 if visual impact wasn't part of the issue. It is sometimes a really subtle thing other times obvious that the big camera was used and as we get older it gets to be a bit harder to haul that thing around. Brett Weston ended his career with 6x7 and 6x6 stuff for most of his work. Gotta tell you, pretty nice stuff...but he shot almost everyday (even from his sick bed at times) for 65 years! It IS good to look at other people's stuff. You learn about the problems with your stuff. Hand positions, branches that should not have been there, lousy choice of background, a shadow :<)...things we all screw up. We are not (even Weston) born with perfect vision. I,personally, would be hard pressed to exactly copy a Weston, especially from memory. If I could, I would be pretty good (actually damn good) and I know I would that I had technique down pat. I think all of us learn from the masters not only of photography but of painting and sculpture as well.
You are not likely to create serious art in an afternoon or without a lot of careful thought...period. Don't take it so seriously you choke yourself up. Enjoy it
Nick -
You're obviously a college professor: too much analysis! Zen approach: don't think, do! Agreed: forget Homage! Finally, to paraphrase Ellington: "if it looks good, it is good."
Well today is valentines day and the only appropriate answeris to relate this to a kiss. All the B.S. about , if you have seen it before then don't take the picture and is it a tradition misses the point. Photography at the very basic root is love, feeling and a sense of familiarity or a desire realised. So when did you ever refuse the kiss of a beautiful woman because she kissed like all the other women, or the kiss of you wife or lover( I keep mine the same) because you had seen it in the viewfinder before?!!! HeLL!!! you just kept on kissing because you enjoyed it. So the is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with taking the same picture you enjoy taking over and over again. If it fells good do it! If you like it do it, and keep doing it. If you want to take 10,000 pics of half moon dome from the "official" outlook do it!! And those who critise you just don't get it. Certainly they won't critise you for kissing you loved one hundred or thousands of time. So what is a few hundred sheets of film to them! To you it is love, satisfaction and deep feeling. To hell with those who don't under stand you. If they buy it greaat or if not forget it. Think for just a fleeting second that Ed Weston was usually busted, broke and did not sell his pics for big dollars. Now his prodgeny do but he died poor. Ansel lived off a post card retail shop for most of his life and only when he was an old geezer did the dollars come in. So lets really look at the old masters, Atget did it for his love of Paris. So you do it for love too and enjoy it and don't take any guff for you shooting. The world will understand after you are dead and gone. But you understtod it when you were alive and enjoyed each kiss ( exposure). Simple ? You bet it is!!!
No man is an island - John Donne. Do what looks and feels right to you - originality is way overrated.
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