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IN THE CHAPTER, Color Photographic Formalism, FROM HER BOOK the new color photography, Sally Eauclaire pretty much nailed my picture making M.O.:
...the most resourceful photographic formalists regard the complexion of the given environment as potentially articulate aesthetic material. They consider the subject and its visual essence as indivisible….these formalists perceive real objects and intervening spaces as inter-animating segments of a total visual presentation....Each photograph represents a delicately adjusted equilibrium in which a section of the world is coopted for its visual possibilities, yet delineated with the utmost specificity. The resulting image exists simultaneously as a continuous visual plane on which every space and object are interlocking pieces of a carefully constructed jigsaw puzzle and a window through which the viewer can discern navigable space and and recognizable subject matter...The most sophisticated practitioners do not work with glib formulas, but combine various tactics in response to the particular demands of each image-making situation. Most formalists now embrace complicated arrangements wherein balance is more intuitively attained and strategy less obviously revealed.
In the same chapter, Eauclaire also wrote about the then-c.1980-issue evident / prevalent as expressed by viewers and critics of what she labeled as the new color photography:
Those receptive to the subtle, sequenced impact of a multilayered image are far outnumbered by the audience who believes a good photograph must be instantly accessible. When the subject seems missing altogether, the photographer may be accused of pulling the wool over the eyes of critics, curators, and the public.
All of the above written, I present these excerpts as part of my research for background, re: a potential book-Top insert # here Worst Sayings / Pieces of Photographic Advice., aka: "glib formulas". Thing is, if I am to do a book, it will be my intent to try to not only disabuse readers of the need for "rules" but also to give them, when they are standing naked and alone (rules wise), some ideas about picture making based solely upon the "strategy" of just seeing.