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Doug in a comment on my last post refers to the often noted phenomenon of having personal favourites that other people just don't like.
It's almost like those tests for colour blindness where you look at the subtly coloured dots and try to see the number amongst the random variation - normal people can see the number clearly, colour blind people look at you like you're crazy - 'there's no number there'. Since this phenomenon works with black and white images, my analogy has severe limits, but it seems like that.
So what could be happening here, how is it that we see greatness in an image that no one else sees? Seems to me there area couple of possibilities.
1) there is a connection between you and the subject matter which doesn't show in the picture but which you of course remember so for you it's as if the picture did show this connection.
2) You can see patterns and relationships in the picture where other people just see clutter. I know I'm guilty of trying to justify a picture because of some tenuous at best patterns in the picture - the left bottom balances the top right, blah, blah, blah... only I'm really stretching it - in those situations, I usually stop kidding myself and abandon the image, and these are never the images I feel really strongly about anyway so perhaps that's not the answer. On the other hand, perhaps there are times that patterns jump out for us but don't show for others - perhaps because we remember the real scene, maybe because it relates to something in our lives - a favourite painting or even another photograph.
One can imagine that different people like different shapes and patterns but that would explain why only some people like a certain image but it doesn't explain why no one likes an image I feel strongly about. there aught to be some people who have similar tastes. No, it's more complicated than that.
Certainly, it's the more abstract images which are usually the ones which only the photographer likes - pictures of lighthouses are easy to sell. Some abstracts though are often admired even if not always purchased while others that are favourites get barely a glance.
Any further thoughts on what explains this phenomenon?
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5 comments:
http://lighthouses-of-sa.blogspot.com/ no lighthouse pictures??
Just this morning I showed my wife an image I had made from a recent trip and told her I thought it might have been my best ever. She thought it was good but not my best. It is rather abstract. Then I read your article and had to smile.
To explain this phenomenon of disagreement, let's suppose that any image will generate a number of interpretations across a population of viewers. The more abstract the image, the more different interpretations. If people base their judgement of whether they like the image or not in part on their interpreation, we would expect to see less agreement on the more abstract stuff. This comment is worth about what you paid for it.
Very interesting observation. I see the inability to criticaly review our own images as a major cause with this problem with spotting good and bad images.
Perfectly valid taste differences can be a reason also. By way of example some people like glamour images but i'd rather chew nettles than see them.
It will be interesting for me to chew on all of this as I am off to Santa Fe to a Jay Maisel workshop where I am told that we will dwell heavily on editing, editing, editing. Should be interesting.
Have you read Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes? Check out his discussion of the "punctum" of the photograph which draws us to it.
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