The Perceptive Photographer

So really what should we focus on when looking at our own work? What makes for a good foundation for analyzing and critiquing your work and the work of others. Inspired by the literary critic, Kenneth Burke, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to use a variation of his dramatistic pentad to critique or analyze photographs. I came with with these five areas: actor, action, form, scene and intention.

While his foundation and approach offers up a way to think about motivation and philosophical backing, I think there some value in applying his approach to photography. The concept of looking at aspects of an image to understand not just the content, impact and value of the image but also where you own bias sits in your evaluation could be very helpful. In this podcast we look at these five elements, how they relate and what happens when we focus on what we know or are comfortable talking about rather than the entire experience of the image.

Supporting Links

Kenneth Burke

Dramatisic Pentad

A Grammar of Motives

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A recent conversation with a fellow photographer about all the technical settings for setting up your camera for the right type of focus got me thinking more about how much focus matters with photography. While it is easy to focus on all the cross-hairs, points of focus, servos, manual vs auto and phase detections, it is hard to realize that focusing on the wrong things and having a lack of clarity and purpose in the work can be just as damaging to the overall focus of an image as can selecting the wrong focus point in the frame.

As a very busy month comes to a close, I got to thinking about the notion of time. I have so many tools for helping me better deal with managing my time. From multiple calendars to computer programs to help me manage my task list, I am still always at a loss for time.

As I was working on getting ahead, I got to think about how my approach to time might be seen in my photographs. With a tendency to prefer to shoot longer shutter speed images, it got me thinking about the idea that maybe my subconscious was interested in extending time and the only way was in my photographs. So in in this podcast, I take a look at the notion of time and how it can impact not just how we shoot images but also how we examine the image and ultimately the photographer.

 

Links mentioned in Podcast

The Photographer's Eye*

 

*Amazon affilate link.

I love night photography and the tension that is created from the juxtaposition of light and shadow. The forms that move in and out of the darkness. I think it goes back to my rather fast run home from staying at a friends house to watch Alien late one night on HBO. I have little doubt that much of the inspiration for my night photography and how I photograph at night is directly related to that heart-racing run home.

Learning and understanding where our inspirations come from and where our biases factor into our work can be a huge help in understanding our own work. It can also really help us understand how we react to seeing the work of others when we are aware of how our own stories, bias and background influence our perception of photography.

I was working with some wet plate processing this past week. For those of you who don't know about wet-plate photography is is a wonderful process that is crazy hands-on. You have to coat the glass or metal with collodion, silver, expose the image while the plate is wet--hence the name, develop, fix and varnish the image. It is absolutely an amazing process. The great part of the process is that every image is a unique photograph. The downside is that every image is uniquely created which gives you an opportunity to create problems for yourself with every step. And, as with any old process, there are a million variables that can effect the image.

As I was working on these various images, I got to thinking about how forgiving I am of my work when I am doing these sorts of processes vs my normal work. I also realized that a lot of times it is spending times with these images where I can start to see who all those little variables come into play to make a really special image. It gave me some pause to think about how I could use those same ideas in my day-to-day photography. Would it make a difference to really understand the good, the bad and the truly unique.

There are so many places that we find inspiration and mentorships when we live the life of an artist. One of my greatest influences and inspirations in my photography is the great Miles Davis. In this podcast, I talk about how he has influenced my work and a couple of his quotes that have really impacted how I think about my photography.

As you listen I would encourage you to think about those non-photographers who have influenced your life and how they show up in your work. I think you will be surprised at how much they have molded and shifted your approach to photography even if some of them never picked up a camera.

10 Keywords

In looking back at old emails I found one where I was asked to photograph a wedding. As I recalled explaining to the person that I don't photograph weddings and not all photography is the same, I was reminded that while we as photographers do a good job of talking about what type of photography we do; we are horrible at talking about our own work.

One of the hardest parts of improving your photography is learning to talk about photography. In this podcast I talk about a method that I have used in the past to help be better understand what is it about my work that is consistent from image to image and from project to project. With a pencil and paper, I like to gather a collection of random images and see what comes to mind when I look at the images. No censorship. No intention. Just reaction. From that process, I find that I can often times gain insights into my work that will really make a difference both in the printing of a photograph and in what happens behind the camera.

Perceptive Photographer Episode 11: Hot Sauce and Photography

While having a few conversations with friends over the past few weeks, I was reminded that good photography is about great images. Those images are not great because of the way they are processed but rather the content they contain. What that means is that we can't just take a mediocre image and hope that there is some secret sauce out there that will fix it up and make it palatable. Just like with food, when something isn't that great all the HDR hot sauce, Pano mustard or stylized ketchup won't make a bland image flavorful. It might spice it up for a second, but real flavor comes in the cooking and not just what we pour on top.

As working photographers I think we have an intrinsic understanding of what we have in an image and if it is good or not, but sometimes in a effort to deal with our memory of a person, place or thing we try to make the image more than it really is when in fact the photograph has no memory it is just an object. The issue with that is our viewer doesn't have that association they only have the image. They only know what we put on the plate in front of them, and our goal should be to make sure that when they look at the image, they don't even think about if it has any sauce on top.

Links in Podcast

Longshot 2015

Ryan Turner Images

Perceptive Photographer Episode 10: Photography and Online Dating

I was recently out to dinner with a good friend who has returned to the world of dating. Having been fortunate enough to be in a relationship since before online dating, I was fascinated to hear about his experiences. As he talked about the process of signing up for an account, finding matches online, and first dates my mind sort of drifted to how similar his experience is to some of what we do with our photography and creative process. In an effort to find a quick start to our photographic relationship we in some ways miss out on those exciting early months of a relationship were we learn so much not just about the person we are dating but about ourselves.

As we work as photographers, I think we have a chance to really think about our relationship with photography and how we want that relationship to be meaningful, lasting and know that it is a long process that requires some work. And while I wish my friend all the success in the world and hope that he is able to find a relationship that works for him, I do not envy his experiences dating right now. As for me, I am going to work on my relationship with my photographic mistress and see if we can find some more common ground and exciting conversations together.

Perceptive Photographer Episode 9: Importance of Space

As Lori and I put some finishing touches on my darkroom studio after 15 months, I got to thinking about how important the notion of space is when we are working photographers. Not just our physical space where we do our creative work from the darkroom to the computer, but also other types of space. The idea of getting our creative space established when we start to work to the use of space in the photograph to create relationships and build in our framing and compositions and finally thinking about personal space.

While the darkroom has come together nicely this weekend, there are still a lot of thoughts about the use of space in the creative process of photography. I am sure that just like the with my darkroom there will be many more organizational efforts to keep myself as creative, organized and thoughtful as possible.