The Perceptive Photographer

Perceptive Photographer Episode 8: Thinking about your audience

In this podcast we talk about how the viewer and audience of the photographs we create is really about our relationship to our own work. It doesn't matter if you are finding your audience or have an audience, ultimately art is about the creation of a dialog between the viewer and the photographer via the image. The audience gives us time and if we are lucky a little attention. If we are really lucky they are willing to engage in a dialogue about the work. We as photographers owe it to our audience to create meaningful and engaging work that challenges and pushes those conversations forward. Finally, we talk about how the conversations you have are the result of what you think of your audience. Is your audience smart and complex willing to give you time and attention or are they fast and quick where they lack any real engagement. If it is the latter, it is really on the photographer to create more interesting images.

Ansel Adams Quotes

“There are always two people in every picture:  the photographer and the viewer.”

“A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.”

Perceptive Photographer Episode 7: Photography is about problem solving

In this episode we look at how much of photography is about figuring out how and why things work. From a bad day in the darkroom resulting in some problems I had never seen before causes me to think about all some of the things that we have to figure out when working as a photographer. Learning gear, sorting out problems in the field and ultimately figuring out how to make our images better is really a lot of the day-to-day work of the average photographer.

Perceptive Photographer Episode 5: All things are not equal

In this episode of the Perceptive Photographer I am reminded by my love of movies that while not all my favorites make the AFI top 100 movies of all times doesn't distract from my love of some films. While I think we evaluate movies that are classics and and our own favorites differently, shouldn't we do the same with photographs. It makes sense to think about the context of the photograph, the purpose of the photograph and the intention as you provide a critique.

Though the process, I was reminded of some of the concepts that Minor White and Walter Chappell discuss in their 1957 Aperture article Some Methods for Experiencing Photographs  in combination with some of my own experiences we focus on how to look at all photographs regardless of type and attempt to develop a more consistent and stronger method to understanding the image.

Links mentioned in the podcast

American Film Institute Top 100 Films

Aperture Magazine Anthology: The Minor White Years, 1952-1976 (affiliate link)

Perceptive Photographer Episode 5: Lessons in Acceptance

In this episode of the Perceptive Photographer I talk about how acceptance can have an impact on your work. From acceptance of your own work, feedback from others and the subjects we photograph, acceptance is a powerful tool that can help us overcome and develop into much stronger artist.

“Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.” – Minor White -

Links mentioned in the podcast

www.williamalbertallard.com

Minor White Info

Perceptive Photographer Episode 4: Importance of working early on artist statements

In this episode of the Perceptive Photographer we look at how the artist statement or writing down what your work is about can be a powerful tool in helping you create more meaningful work. I found that in my own workflow, I used to wait until the last possible second to create an artist statement. Those statements where more drivel and pontification about meaningless aspects of my work. By shifting the writing about my work to the beginning of the process, I was able to find vocabulary and meaning in my work. As I got better about talking about my work, my work got better behind the camera.

Links mentioned in the podcast

 

Online Artist Statement Generators

Arty Bollocks

500 Letters

Artist Statement Generator 2000

the Perceptive Photographer Episode 3

In this latest version of the Perceptive Photographer I talk about why liking a photograph is not necessarily the best way to judge an image. From the misguided feedback on social media with the Like button, +1s and tweets, it is easy to believe that an image quality is based on this quick snap judgment feedback. For images to really be understood and find their value, we need to look deeper into the photographs and move beyond a simple like and move towards understanding the photograph on a deeper level. In my own experience some of the best photographs I have seen are images that I don't like, but those images have had lasting impact on me as a person and photographer.

the Perceptive Photographer Episode 2

In this second episode of the Perceptive Photographer we talk about the importance of intention behind the camera in the creation of meaningful photographs. By first focusing more on intention in the creation of the work rather than on just reacting, we are able to hopefully increase the quality and satisfaction of the photographic process. We also look at the importance of changing the shotgun approach to working the scene and try to really focus in on quality over quantity.

Perceptive Photographer: Episode 1

I am excited to be releasing a new podcast focused on the more introspective side of photography called the Perceptive Photographer. In this podcast, I will be covering all sorts of topics on photography like dealing with internal struggles to create work, understanding the meaning of your own work, the role of intention and analysis in creating meaningful work and interviews with some amazing but less well know photographers.

While I am sure that at times the podcast might drift into some of the more traditional topics, the goal is to really focus on what it takes to create amazing photographs that really matter to you. I hope that you can enjoy the podcast. This introductory episode talks about the podcast goals and where the name for the podcast came from.

In our second episode, we will be looking at the nature of intention when working behind the camera.