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View Full Version : Do you get in your own way?



John Kasaian
3-Jul-2009, 18:18
I find that sometimes taking a photograph becomes too much about the photographer (me) than the subect. I know many photographers take photographs as an extension of their own creative vision. That sounds all well and good, but my style is driven not by what I want to say, but what surprises the eye.
When it all comes together the results are pleasing (to me anyway) but sometimes the whole shoot tends to revolve around me and not the subject (if I can set up, fine focus, dial in an f-stop and remember to take the dark slide out, I figure that's about as involved as I need to get.) Of course getting in the position where I want to set up can involve a bit of adventure and that adds some spice to the memory of the day, but details which have little to do with the mission kind of bug me and I find often have a negative effect on the final image (or at least the memory of how the day was spent.)
Does anybody else here have this concern?

Heroique
3-Jul-2009, 21:47
I think you’ve hit upon a debate that’s ageless and inexhaustible:

What degree of unity is there between artist and creation?

I often tell myself my best work isn’t about me at all – and it makes me feel so noble.

But then I take into account the astonishing (and often unconscious) role that my personal inclinations, social conditioning, and formal education have played – on the locations I choose, the compositions I like, the darkroom work I prefer…

And I’ll acknowledge there’s an “all about me” dimension to my work, too.

monkeymon
4-Jul-2009, 15:00
There is no such thing as selfless art... it's just impossible. You make it, it looks like you because you made it thru your subjective vision of the world. Your work is always subjective, it just can't be objective unless you are.. and that's just impossible. As impossible as creating something totally random.

Brian Vuillemenot
4-Jul-2009, 17:10
If the photographer didn't get in his or her own way, then what would be the point of making the photograph?

lfgary
4-Jul-2009, 17:51
I got into photography to express MY vision. That is the only reason. I am colorblind, and my photographs reflect it.

Gary Conrad
www.thecolorblindphotographer.net

Bruce Barlow
5-Jul-2009, 06:02
John, I encourage you to get the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards, and practice what she preaches.

I find that if I inject myself into the process, the results will be bland. As soon as I say to myself "Gosh, this is going to be a good picture," I might was well pack up. It never is.

Instead, if I can get to Edwards' right-brain state and mostly stay there, I win much more often. Right-brain state seems to take the ego out of it ("there is no 'I'"), and lets me flow. It's a little scary looking at proofs and not remembering making the photograph, but oh well.

Edwards' new version has some wonderful bits about composition, too.