Studying famous photographers to better your own photography.

[jon_k]

But props given for growing out of the equipment stage. Photography is a lot more fun once you start thinking about it creatively, not technically.

This is embarrassing and I feel you've caught me with my pants down! You must read people pretty well? After thinking about what you said, you cannot be any further from the truth.

Up until this point, this week even, it has been all about gear and technical aspects of photography to me. All the while, I've been preaching "it's not the equipment, its your technique" to posters on forums. But, obviously it was just a phrase I was regurgitating, as I didn't believe it myself to the full extent. Sure, I enjoyed taking photographs and even made some pretty good ones, but something has always been lacking in my photographs, and so where I lacked, I made up for in equipment purchases.

I wasn't buying equipment because I thought it would take good photos for me, but I thought it would help me take better quality photos. Any tool is useless without purpose, direction, or motivation. A fisheye can create barrel distortion, but if you can't make a photograph that has impact and stands on its own, it won't hold water at all. A blind man can't take good photographs no matter how good his gear is.

I feel I am evolving and I'm trying to decide where to go at this point. I'm at a crossroads but which turn do I take? I need to develop my own style, and find my own niche, and find something that I enjoy photographing as much as I enjoy the act of photography itself. I then need to take that passion and wrap my photography around it to inspire other people.

I feel by studying the "greats" photographs up and down I can determine what makes the great photographs so great. I then feel I'd be able to take some of their inspiration and technique and apply it to my own efforts. I don't want to imitate them, but I want to use them to give me a path of my own.Then I feel I can spin my own style and perspective and learn to take meaningful photographs.

This hobby is as much about equipment as it is about philosophy. Unfortunately nearly all the photo forums I've visited talk all about equipment rather than feelings, emotion, and the motivation of photography. Probably because the reasons why people take photographs are about as different and many as stars in the sky. Nobody would agree on the same motivations and purposes. We can't even agree on equipment when someone brings up a brand or manufacturer. How could we agree on form of expression?

I am evolving and I'm trying to determine my path and passion. What's my end goal in photography? I'm asking questions like "Why do we take photos at all?" and "How can I effect the lives of those viewing my photo." and "How can I show the viewer what I want them to see" (Up until now, I've been taking photos for me. Taking photos of what I think /I/ see.) This is philosophical points we studied in the text book in high school photography class. I hated that part. I just wanted to snap some shots and get to play in the darkroom. I don't feel this costly mis happen path was a mistake. It was probably a requirement for me to ever come to this point.

Too bad I can't get answers from anyone on this forum to these questions. They are questions only myself can answer. The fact I'm even asking them must be worth something and shows that I might have some sign of improving. Photographs with purpose have impact. Photographs with impact have purpose. Doesn't that sound about right? I think I'll find my answers, but it won't be as easy as searching the forum anymore. All I need to do is make my photographs have impact and purpose. Easier said then done.

Has anyone come to this level of thought?

I felt like I understood photography pretty well a week ago. Now I feel like I've only scratched the surface. Imagination is more important than knowledge... said Albert, and he was undoubtedly right.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I've been taking photographs on and off for 26 years now. After reading that, I think the lightbulb just went on...

 

[deanimator]

Two suggestions:

1) Absolutely do not overlook technical know-how

2) Read Roland Barthes "Camera Lucida"

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I feel by studying the "greats" photographs up and down I can determine what makes the great photographs so great. I then feel I'd be able to take some of their inspiration and technique and apply it to my own efforts.

This is no different from your attempts to make up for your shortcomings by buying equipment. You're still looking for the 'quick fix'.
If merely studying the work of past greats could improve you then every Art historian would be a greater artist than Picasso.
It can teach you how to look at pictures and therefore how to look at a things you photograph, but that's as far as it goes. Everything else has to come from within and until you can look inwards you won't find what you want.

 

[Helen B]

I often learn more from looking at photographs that I initially dislike in some way. There may be something that mildly annoys me. When I look at a photograph I try to imagine what mental process the photographer might have had when the photograph was made. Sometimes I find that as I get further into a photograph I change my opinion about the photographer's work. Most of the time there is nothing to get in to - 'rather thin', as one of my friends often says.

Hamish Fulton's work did not appeal to me at first. 'This is pretentious. Why can't the guy just go on a walk, for goodness sake?' I became more and more intrigued by his work, and the whole process of trying to get into his work was very inspiring for me. It's not pretentious when there really is something there.

The same for Thomas Joshua Cooper. At first I found his captions rather unneccessary, but very quickly began to see more.

I started taking and developing pictures when I was ten or eleven. Then it was a mixture of a simple fascination for the magical process, and an equally simple desire to record the visual details of my life. I did not look upon it as expression - I painted and made sculptures for that. When I was about seventeen my cousin gave me a magazine she thought I might like: Creative Camera. It was a really bad name, with misleading connotations, by the way.

It had the work of Raymond Moore in it. Holy smoke. That's what photography can do? Nothing else can do that. Nothing else can show the quiet poetry of the everyday. I had been so close and so far.

Best,
Helen
PS Why can't a blind person take good photographs? I disagree with you on that, I think that they can.

 

[Iron Flatline]

jon_k, I struggle with this all the time. Starting these conversations on the internet is always uncomfortable, not the least of which are the many people without a real opinion or input who feel like chiming in anyway... But that's not the topic right now.

The whole process spirals. There comes a point where you have a very specific way you want to shoot and to express yourself... and then you grow tired of that. They ARE philosophical questions, don't be afraid to ask them. And if you get lucky you'll find yourself in conversation with someone who understands AND has the space to explore it with you.

Hertz is right in part, as he suggests that it always comes from within. But I find looking at other's work highly relevant, informative, and rewarding. It very much has allowed me to define my goals. By studying others I've found work that I greatly admire, but have no interest in emulating - like Simen Johan or Ruud Van Empel. Other work has really inspired me, and has helped me understand what gets ME excited. Gary Winogrand and John Szarkowski are right up there for me. And yes, there's work I definitely need to go back to if I am to follow Helen_B's example - I don't get it, it makes me uncomfortable, I find it pointless... but these people are highly respected. Lee Friedlander - that shot of Times Square, or the series out of the car window in Vegas just makes me SO MAD... come ON, get out of the f*ing car... God knows he keeps my eye moving between all the different focal plains though. But a lot of his other work is why I shoot what I shoot.

But to get even more esoteric, it's not just photography itself, of course. There's music that I hear and books that I read that evoke a certain mood, and I think I know what that mood is, and I want to capture it. And it's so God-Damn elusive!

Anyway... the bad news is that you'll probably never get it perfectly right (esp. since the target moves) but he good news is that it gives you something to do between shopping for Nikes and waiting for Hale-Bopp to come back around.

 

[JerryPH]

Personal edification, no matter what area it comes from has a very similar aspect. We learn, we grow, after a while we think we know and once we reach a point that we really *do* know... we realize how little we know.

Growing up as a child prodigy in music, I lived through something like this. As a world class martial arts athelete in my middle years, I went through this again. As a man striving to better myself as a simple and humble human being, I strive for that on a daily basis. The theme is a very common and recurring one. Improvement through personal edification... pushing the boundaries and reaching out.

Bruce Lee once said (I paraphrase):
"When I started out, a punch was a punch and a kick was a kick. As I learned more, I grew to realize that a punch was more than a punch and a kick, more than a kick. Now at the peak of my education, I have come to an epipahny... a punch is just a punch, and a kick is merely a kick".

Once you come to the grips of knowing where you want to go, you will often times find that the journey is the important part, not the destination. In terms of this hobby, doing what you love is what brings you the real pleasure... not the final aspect of looking at one picture and realizing that it is the summit of everything you ever sought in photography.

My personal questions are not as deep nor profound as yours, I still have a lot to learn, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy it any less than anyone else here.

Come to think of it... that 30mm F/1.4 coming this week is sure going to help put a smile on my face!

 

[bellavita64]

jon_k, glad you are going to give the library a chance! I think you will find it a great resource. Actually you are the ying to my yang. I thrive on the creativitiy side of photography and fall all over myself trying to figure out the technical end. I think that is one of the great things about this forum. We all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas, so we can all help each other out and provide encouragement. Yeah!!

 

[jon_k]

jon_k, glad you are going to give the library a chance! I think you will find it a great resource.

I haven't been to the library since I was a child. The resource is free though, and for the amount of studying and reading I'll be doing, it'll be necessary unless I want to use my money that could be spent on camera equipment. Though I'm going to stave off any more camera purchases until I make progress in the creative department. I need to learn to use all these lenses I have. I've got MANY more lenses then I have listed in my signature.

Actually you are the ying to my yang. I thrive on the creativitiy side of photography and fall all over myself trying to figure out the technical end.

You yearn for my knowledge, I yearn for your creativity.

Lucky thing we can both, in time, learn or develop what we're lacking. I've got a creative side buried somewhere in my head.

I think that is one of the great things about this forum. We all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas, so we can all help each other out and provide encouragement. Yeah!!

Yep. I do like the support these forums can bring!

 

[_SnapShot_]

It takes both, and much more. You can't have one without the other. If either is lacking the photo suffers. You are trying to solve a complex problem with a simple solution.

 

[Alpha]

Sometimes I study famous photographers and then decide that I don't like them. I did that with Avedon. His printing (and later, his instructions to the printer) were fantastic, but I just felt like his photos were too restless.