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I wrote yesterday about not being stuck with preconceived ideas of what to shoot, for fear of missing something new and possibly better. I want to take that thought a bit further and say that I think that 'trying hard' is probably the worst thing you can do as a photographer. I don't mean not being careful, I mean that the harder I look for a good photograph the less likely it is that I will find one.
This of course leaves us with 'so how the hell to I take good photographs if I'm not allowed to go looking for one?'
What if instead of hunting for great images, you were to go out looking for things that interest you. I didn't look for an interesting image in my bedroom, I simply observed that the shorts hanging up made an interesting pattern and I THEN wondered if it might make an interesting photograph despite being such an ordinary subject. The point is THE INTEREST COMES FIRST.
When I photographed ADM Flour Mill, the interesting patterns made by the cracks in the concrete cought my interest and then the question was asked, could that make an interesting photograph.
Imagine your English prof assigning an essay on a particular topic about which you have absolutely no interest. It's possible to do the assignment, but the chances of creating a work of art in the essay has to be considered slim at best. On the other hand, if it is a subject about which you feel very strongly, you might well write an essay, whether anyone asks you to or not, whether anyone is going to give you credit or pay you for it or not.
Mind you, you could easily argue that unless I'm pretty odd (entirely possible), I didn't have an interest in underwear (mine at least, other than to find a clean pair), then the interest can't have preceded the photograph. But even with underwear, it was a simple observation tha clothes dumped randomly on the floor or casually hung up made interesting patterns. I looked at those patterns for a few years before deciding to photograph them.
On the weekend when I photographed the wire forms, it was the way stacks of them formed interesting patterns that interested me - I have no interest in wire forms per-se. Hell, I don't even know if Edward Weston ate peppers!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the interest usually precedes the finding the photograph and that what we should be looking for is not the photographable but the interesting, and I don't think that's the same thing at all.
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3 comments:
It's so obvious when you say it, but still so easy to forget.
Now, thinking about it, when I don't carry a camera, I usually stop and admire lots of things and people I find interesting and/or beautiful. But when I have my camera handy, I tend to look for pictures, and I don't find half as many interesting subjects.
In reading Mr. Weston's "Daybooks" I found he did indeed eat the peppers. As the sun permitted, he would make the pictures and when the sheen was wearing off with age, they were chopped up and added to his meals.
At one point he mentioned he felt almost cannibalistic in eating his prior subjects.
This could be filed under the heading of "Little known facts, little worth knowing".
Great post George. I am a newcomer to your blog, think I'll visit frequently!
I face this situation quite often, though I do tend to seek out what looks interesting to me first - I then proceed with wanting to create a great image from it. Sometimes the two just don't go hand in hand for me unfortunately. Mostly the former without the latter.
It is a great approach to take though, something is easily forgotten while in the field.
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