all photos ~ (embigenable)
IN ADDITION TO PHOTO CRITIC’S / AUTHOR’S WRETCHED EXCESS, artspeak wise, they also have the ever present propensity to attribute-to photographers-the use of a myriad of “strategies” in the making of their picture. That is, the conscious and deliberate implementation of visual art-theory technique(s).
I believe the reason for this is two-fold; 1) most critics / authors-who write about photography-have advanced degrees in ART theory / history / et al and, consequently, have the need to “share” this enlightenment with the unwashed masses, 2.) what Bob Dylan crooned: Come writers and critics…Who prophesize with your pen…And don’t criticize what you can’t understand.
Or, simply put: it has been suggested that those who can (make Art), do so, those who can not, teach write about it. I know of no critic / writer who makes great photographs-although John Szarkowski comes to mind as a notable exception. And, iMo, when they write about the making of a photograph, they tend to bury the reader under a pile of art-speak / theory cuz it’s the only tool they have to explain something, i.e. a sensation, that they do not understand.
Perhaps, if they spent more time reading what actual picture makers have to say/write about how they make pictures, they might have a clue regarding how it actually done. Consider Edward Weston’s words:
…to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk…
…one does not think during creative work: one has a background of years — learning — unlearning— success — failure — dreaming — thinking — experience — back it goes — farther back than one's ancestors: all this, — then the moment of creation, the focusing of all into the moment. So I can make — "without thought" — fifteen carefully-considered negatives one every fifteen minutes, — given material with as many possibilities…
…I always work better when I do not reason, when no question of right or wrong enter in,-when my pulse quickens to the form before me without hesitation nor calculation...
Let me go out on a limb here; iMo and iMactual picture making experience, most good / great pictures-mine or those made by others-are created in situ without a great deal-or any at all-of “calculation”. Which is to write that, instead, at the moment of creation everything just feels right.
And, I can trust that feeling cuz I understand that my own personal vision will lead me to not only interesting referents but it will also direct me to see-and capture-those referents in a manner that satisfies my eye and sensibilities and, it is worth noting, the eye and sensibilities of others. Fortunately for me in my picture making world-both commercial and personal-that vision is all encompassing inasmuch as any thing and every thing is fodder for a picture making opportunity.
Case in point, photography for hire wise, the 2 spreads from 2 hardbound coffee table that featured my photography-all of the pictures in the Dusquesne Cookbook and all of the featured 2 page spread pictures in the Day in the Life of an Urban Hospital book + an out-take from a KODAK Storytellers campaign. Color? BW? Haute Cuisine? Open heart surgery? Faux Norman Rockwell characters? “Real” people? Models? Large format cameras? Rotating lens panoramic camera? Available light? Controlled light? Studio light?
Sure. Why not? The making of those pictures all felt the same to my eye and sensibilities. And there is nothing better, picture making wise, than the feeling you get when you know that you have nailed it and the client knows it too.
So, word of advice, making pictures wise. Forget what the critics / self-procalimed ”experts” write. Stop thinking and just do it.