The lecture from today provided us with some case studies of practising or recent photographers. Wonathan began by discussing that one of the main driving forces behind a free market economy is that consumers have to believe that they can purchase solutions to their problems. Problems that we don't even have until an advert points them out to us. No doubt you are aware of this consumerist phenomenon, and the potential for people to be susceptible to it. The photographic industry is equally susceptible - a certain desirable aesthetic of an image is advertised as being mutual to a certain brand - the example given being Canon 'suggesting' that the photojournalists of VII agency rely on Canon cameras for their successful image making. Adverts aim to make an inference of association in our subconscious - association of a product to a success story. There is however an alternative option, which opposes this inference: enter Teru Kuwayama, who shoots on a Holga and has received numerous awards for his photojournalism work.
Why is Wonathan telling us all this? Because it's a mistake to think that a piece of equipment or a technical skill is the key to great photography.
"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for an inability to notice" - Elliot ErwittPeople can copy your images, and they can copy your style, but they will never be able to see the world as you do. It is why we should photograph what we feel passionately about and it is why we will not be taught lighting in the creative sense of what looks 'good'.
Richard Avedon's influential work 'In the American West' took six years to complete and included 123 prints selected from 17,000 exposures. He was very particular about those final exhibition prints, frequently rejecting them and asking his printers to "make the person more gentle" or "give the face more tension" etc. He wanted them to understand and appreciate the emotional content he sought from each portrait. His decisions in refining these portraits came through years of practice, collated knowledge, and dedication to honing his art. These are not things that we can purchase, but we can acquire such confidence in our own practice with dedication.
Laura Wilson (Avedon's assistant) reveals some of his techniques:
"Avedon mirrored the position of his subjects subconsciously - connecting with them"
"Dick didn't direct in an obvious way - he waited... you have to know the moment when you see it"
Steve Pyke is a portrait photographer interested in physiognomy - or the study of facial features as indicative of their character. He also talks about documenting a conversation. Wonathan mentioned that Steve would remove things that he didn't feel in control of, hence the tight face shot, the simple block tone background, the straightforward light usage. This is an approach which I can empathise with strongly, and which I would encourage all less-experienced photographers to appreciate. It can be very embarrassing when you take all kinds of sophisticated techniques to a photograph and then discover that you don't quite know what's going on (or rather what's going wrong). Start simple, progress in line with your understanding, don't rush in and make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Steve Pyke - Arthur Danto
Jonathan Worth - Lilly Allen
Jonathan Worth - Stephen Merchant
Today the main assignment for the module was set - 'To document a meeting'. We will discuss and explore ideas for this brief in our next peer session, as well as reviewing and critiquing each others work, and going over technical issues as requested.
No comments:
Post a Comment