The Perceptive Photographer

In going through some older negatives this week, I found several images that were rather abstract and it was hard for me to initially remember the subject matter. As I stood over the light table, I thought about Alfred Stieglitz’s Equivalence work.

Alfred Stieglitz

Influences by Wassily Kandinsky, Stieglitz was interested in understanding how to push photography into a new realm. At the time photography was not really considered an art, and while Stieglitz worked hard to get photography elevated to an art, it was still in many ways stuck in the science and chemistry of its creation. Most images were, in what today’s terms would be considered straight photography. The images were often of the real world and didn’t expand the medium. Between 1925 and 1934, Stieglitz photographed a number of images of just clouds. He was interested in the emotional, feeling and meaning of the images as abstracts rather than focused on the subject of the clouds. Most of the images were taken without key reference points to aid the viewer in understanding the context of the image. This lack of context forced the view to work with the abstract nature of the photograph to attempt to find meaning. He would eventually call this series of images Equivalence.

Minor White and the California School of Photography

Many photographers associated with the California School of Photography (Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind come to mind) were heavily influenced by this idea of using photography to create abstractions of the real world to convey meaning. Minor White wrote considerably on the topic and broke down much of the ideas and notions we have today of equivalence in photography into understandable chucks. Focusing in on the meaning that the viewer creates when looking at the photograph creates the equivalent moment, White was able to create a framework to understand how and why these images work.

Equivalence Exercises

A couple of exercises to help you create some of your own work that focuses on equivalents.

* Create a series of 10 images where the subject is unknown. What emotion, feelings or metaphors do you want to use to create meaning in the work. Focus on the feelings first and how your framing can help or hinder your efforts.

* Look back at your work work and see what images you consider equivalents. What makes them such? Is there a pattern to those images? What story does that work tell?

* When looking at images (your own or others) that you consider to be equivalents, what shape, form, compositional elements are used to invoke a response. Do you respond more to abstraction, color, form, patterns, or lines? What elements could you add to your own work to make your work stronger.

 

 

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In this episode, we take a look at some of the things that you need to focus on when you aren't sure about how to get started with organizing your images so that you can take on the edit and sequencing of a project. Much like location in real estate, the key to getting successful editing and sequencing of your project is organization, organization, and organization.

Tools to Stay Organized

It doesn't matter what you use to stay organized (Lightroom, Capture One, PhotoMechanic), as long as you are consistent in your approach to organization. I personally find that using a cataloging system or keywording system that allows for a one image to many projects approach to be the most successful way to stay organized and find your work when needed. Building collections, albums or folders around key themes and concepts will allow you to explore your work and find images that can work across multiple projects rather than just for the one shoot they might have been created for at one time. The power of these sorts of tools like Lightroom and Capture One can make it easy to stay organized, focus on multiple projects and keep your editing consistent between projects. Each tool has pros and cons, and I recommend that you try them out if you haven't to stay organized.

Write it Down

Also, keeping a running list or journal of your ideas and projects is important. Having clarity around what you want to have a project be about and focused on is critical to knowing what images to start with and how to narrow their focus down.

Pick and Edit Workflow

Finally, we talk about how you have to be really good about narrowing your images down from all to some to many to few and ultimately to your final picks. Getting a system in place for organizing and understanding your workflow will help you have time and energy necessary to do the editing work. By focusing on only a few images rather than editing all images, you can keep the focus on the story you want to tell rather than the sliders and layers stacks necessary for editing.

In this episode, we take a look at some of the things that you need to focus on when you aren’t sure about how to get started with organizing your images so that you can take on the edit and sequencing of a project. Much like location in real estate, the key to getting successful editing and sequencing of your project is organization, organization, and organization.

Tools to Stay Organized

It doesn’t matter what you use to stay organized (Lightroom, Capture One, PhotoMechanic), as long as you are consistent in your approach to organization. I personally find that using a cataloging system or keywording system that allows for a one image to many projects approach to be the most successful way to stay organized and find your work when needed. Building collections, albums or folders around key themes and concepts will allow you to explore your work and find images that can work across multiple projects rather than just for the one shoot they might have been created for at one time. The power of these sorts of tools like Lightroom and Capture One can make it easy to stay organized, focus on multiple projects and keep your editing consistent between projects. Each tool has pros and cons, and I recommend that you try them out if you haven’t to stay organized.

Write it Down

Also, keeping a running list or journal of your ideas and projects is important. Having clarity around what you want to have a project be about and focused on is critical to knowing what images to start with and how to narrow their focus down.

Pick and Edit Workflow

Finally, we talk about how you have to be really good about narrowing your images down from all to some to many to few and ultimately to your final picks. Getting a system in place for organizing and understanding your workflow will help you have time and energy necessary to do the editing work. By focusing on only a few images rather than editing all images, you can keep the focus on the story you want to tell rather than the sliders and layers stacks necessary for editing.

 

 

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In Part 2 of our look at Roland Barthes Camera Lucida we spend time talking about the second part of the book. While the first part focused more heavily on the coding and meaning of photography and photographs as points of basic study and banality (studium) and photographs of true interest or applied pressure (punctum), the second half of the book focuses more on how the images impact him and his search for an actual photograph.

He is ultimately able to find a photograph of his mother that he considers to be a real photograph. His primary criteria was finding a photograph that he recognized her. Without the historical context of his own memory and association, could he find a true image. He does find one photograph "A Winter Garden" when his mother is a child and it reveals to him the same experience of looking at here as when he was caring for her at the end of her life. Over the course of the discourse he dives into idea around how photographs are able to confirm the existence of something from the past but not recreate the past. Images are, even more than language, able to say for certain that something has happened. He also spends time examining how we see art, cinema, painting and photography in our understanding of what is real. More importantly, he examines what allows us to find reality in images that by definition have no real meaning.

At the end of the podcast, I offer up some idea for how to apply some of the ideas and concepts that Barthes proposes to help you examine your own work.

 

Affiliate link to Amazon.com to pick up Camera Lucida

In Part 2 of our look at Roland Barthes Camera Lucida we spend time talking about the second part of the book. While the first part focused more heavily on the coding and meaning of photography and photographs as points of basic study and banality (studium) and photographs of true interest or applied pressure (punctum), the second half of the book focuses more on how the images impact him and his search for an actual photograph.

He is ultimately able to find a photograph of his mother that he considers to be a real photograph. His primary criteria was finding a photograph that he recognized her. Without the historical context of his own memory and association, could he find a true image. He does find one photograph “A Winter Garden” when his mother is a child and it reveals to him the same experience of looking at here as when he was caring for her at the end of her life. Over the course of the discourse he dives into idea around how photographs are able to confirm the existence of something from the past but not recreate the past. Images are, even more than language, able to say for certain that something has happened. He also spends time examining how we see art, cinema, painting and photography in our understanding of what is real. More importantly, he examines what allows us to find reality in images that by definition have no real meaning.

At the end of the podcast, I offer up some idea for how to apply some of the ideas and concepts that Barthes proposes to help you examine your own work.

 

Affiliate link to Amazon.com to pick up Camera Lucida

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One of the classic books on critical theory in photography is Roland Barthes Camera Lucida. One of the last pieces written by Barthes, he writes as series of short essays and thoughts on photography. Specifically he tries to understand why some photographs resonate more with him than others. Why do some photographs, no matter their historical or artistic significance resonate and other do not? Why do some family photographs matter more than others? Is there is system or coding system that can allow him to understand why images work and don't work. Camera Lucia is broken down into two parts. In the first part, he attempts to understand how to see and react to a photograph. The second part of the book is more of a look at specific images and reactions to parts of an image that can cause a photography to have significance. In part one of this podcast, we look at the first part of the book and focus on how studium and punctum can help us better understand photography.

From this work, he divides our understanding of photographs into two categories: stadium and punctum.

Studium

Means "to study." From this analysis we can understand why photographs work. What was the intention of the operator (photographer). What understanding is applied by the spectator (viewer).  Photographs that sit in this realm can inform, represent, surprise, signify and awaken desire within the spectator. However, most all photographs live in this realm and as a result are forgotten as soon as they are out of sight. They lack the something that makes a photography stay with the viewer.

Punctum

This is the element of a photograph that has the viewer stay with the image. It makes the image have personal meaning to the spectator. Punctum is like being shot by an arrow. It is a pressure that is applied like a bruise. It leaves a mark. What Barthes realizes is that this is unique for everyone and that when this moment or pressure happens. The photograph become animated and alive. The characters and objects in the frame become real.

 

Affiliate link to Amazon.com to pick up Camera Lucida

>

One of the classic books on critical theory in photography is Roland Barthes Camera Lucida. One of the last pieces written by Barthes, he writes as series of short essays and thoughts on photography. Specifically he tries to understand why some photographs resonate more with him than others. Why do some photographs, no matter their historical or artistic significance resonate and other do not? Why do some family photographs matter more than others? Is there is system or coding system that can allow him to understand why images work and don’t work. Camera Lucia is broken down into two parts. In the first part, he attempts to understand how to see and react to a photograph. The second part of the book is more of a look at specific images and reactions to parts of an image that can cause a photography to have significance. In part one of this podcast, we look at the first part of the book and focus on how studium and punctum can help us better understand photography.

From this work, he divides our understanding of photographs into two categories: stadium and punctum.

Studium

Means “to study.” From this analysis we can understand why photographs work. What was the intention of the operator (photographer). What understanding is applied by the spectator (viewer).  Photographs that sit in this realm can inform, represent, surprise, signify and awaken desire within the spectator. However, most all photographs live in this realm and as a result are forgotten as soon as they are out of sight. They lack the something that makes a photography stay with the viewer.

Punctum

This is the element of a photograph that has the viewer stay with the image. It makes the image have personal meaning to the spectator. Punctum is like being shot by an arrow. It is a pressure that is applied like a bruise. It leaves a mark. What Barthes realizes is that this is unique for everyone and that when this moment or pressure happens. The photograph become animated and alive. The characters and objects in the frame become real.

 

Affiliate link to Amazon.com to pick up Camera Lucida

>

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Understanding color and how we perceive and see color can go a long way in helping understand how and why some of photographs make for stronger color images and others fail. Our understanding of color and how color relates has been studied for hundreds of years by painters, scientist, and psychologist. While each disciple is able to provide a clue to how we see and understand color, it is only by examining multiple approaches to color theory can be begin to fully understand why colors work in our photographs.

Color Theories

There are a number of color theories that can be utilized to help understand how we see color and the impacts of one color against another. When we are looking at colors it is important to distinguish between local color (the color of an object under normal daylight illumination) and accidental color (the color the object appears to be based on reflected light). Two primary theories help to explain the differences between those color definitions. The law of simultaneous contrast explains why colors of different objects effect each other and most noticiblely when they share a complementary color.

The concept of consistency of color states that we perceive colors to be the same regardless of the illumination source. A white wall will appear as white even with shifts of color for warm to cool tones. A green jacket will appear green in the daylight and under warmer yellow incandescent light. It is due in part to this concept that we can't just neutralize all color out of a print with a white balance tool. Neutrals will appear neutral in an print even with tint and tone. The tint and tone are important elements in a print to help explain the color illumination and color relationships.

When working in color it is important to note that shifts in color (or hue) are always accompanied by shifts in the value of the color. Color also only works when relationships between colors AND light and shadow are present in the print. Those relationships must be established and plausible for the image to make sense.

There is no single concept, law or theory that can fully explain what is happening in a color image. It is important to understand the various way we see and respond to color to help us explain why we see color in images the way we do and how to color correct them to make the experience of the print as natural as possible.

In episode 38 of the podcast, I talked about seeing in color verse black and white. Since then I have had a number of conversations about what makes a good color photograph. This is a very complex question as a lot of elements come into play when talking about what makes a good photograph. However, there are a number of key concepts about color and color theory that can help us to understand what the color and color structures are doing within an image to better help us understand the photograph.

In this, part 1 of 2, episode of the podcast, I give a basic introduction to the concepts of color, some basics of color theory and key areas to focus on to create good color images. Color can be broken down into key components. Hue (the actual color), brightness (degree of lightness and darkness), and saturation (purity of the color) all make up a given color. We can also introduce tints by adding white or tones by adding black. Even with this very specific way to describe color, we often times describe color with non-descriptive adjectives such as lemon, ruby, fire-engine. These adjectives help us understand colors, but they are not accurate nor consistent.

Key Color Concepts

Colors are only able to be understood in relationship to other colors. We need colors to exist side-by-side so that we can understand and relate to them. Some colors, based on their position on the color wheel, will create complementary colors other times they will lack a cohesive harmony. Our understanding of colors will also change the longer we look at the colors. Our own perceptions change and become more insightful as we look into the colors, which is why we often times will be more likely to linger at a more subtle but complex image verse a bright high contrast image.

Color Printing Concepts

Finally in the podcast, I talk about the importance of removing color cast, printing with the proper density to maximize color shifts and tones and working with colors that remain plausible to the image.  In part two of the podcast next week, we will explore more in-depth some color theories and how all this can be applied to critiquing your work and the work of others.

For this weeks podcast, I am joined by Seattle based fine-art photographer Gina White. Gina has been a photographer for over 25 years working primarily in historical and analog processes. She is a a faculty member at the Photographic Center Northwest where she teaches primarily black and white analog courses along with several courses focused on alternative processes such as lith and bromoil printing.

In the interview, we discuss what it means to be a photographer and to live a creative life. Tracing her root back to that first camera and what it means to be behind the lens, Gina provides some great perspectives on what it means to be a working artist. She talks at length about the trade offs when you live as an artist and what those trade-offs have meant for her. We talk about her love of teaching and of Paris. I have know that Paris has been a huge influence for Gina, but it was interesting to hear her talk about some of her favorite artist, photographers, and musicians who have all impacted her life.

I was also so excited because Gina agreed to announces the release of her first book Memories of Paris. The book is a love affair with Paris that started years ago and has been her focus for the past year. The book will be available in mid-January but is available for pre-order from her website. The images in the book are reproductions of her lith prints, and provide a wonderful view into the sights, smells, reflections and textures of Paris.

The first printing of the book is limited to 100 hardback copies with dust jacket. You can get a copy of the book for $100 or a copy of the book plus a print for $250.