"The Thing Itself"

[Ed Mills]

Good Day. I am taking a college digital photography course online and I'm having a bit of trouble trying to interpret what my instructor wants me to do for this weeks assignment.

She had us read some of Szarkowski's "The Photographer's Eye" and in it he discusses taking a picture of "The Thing Itself". I have done a lot of research on the meaning of that particular phrase to try and find something that springs forth as being the perfect subject.

When looking for what other photographers have shot when looking for "The Thing Itself", I've found everything from a black and white pic of a spoon on a table, all the way to photo's of posed models and pets....It seems like anything can be it....but I don't really see the world the same way as professional photographers, I guess.

I'm not looking for "Go here and take a picture of this"...I just wonder if someone on here that's familiar with Szarkowski's work might be able to put his 5 elements of the perfect picture into layman's terms for the noobie.

TYIA.
Ed

 

[photoguy99]

I've always interpreted the five things to be a progression.

The Thing Itself is the first stage. You simply find something you want to show the world and you photograph it as best you can to illustrate it in its essence.

With The Detail you move closer. If not physically then in essence. You're perhaps not showing The Thing as much, but perhaps some essential distilled part of it.

The Frame is perhaps just a more sophisticated version of The Detail. You're more consciously selecting what to leave out, and what to include, but in a broader way than simply cutting out everything except a small detail.

With Time and Vantage Point you're more fully using the camera position and timing. The essential act of finding where to stand and when to shoot becomes fully realized.

 

[Ed Mills]

Thank you for your response.

In your opinion, would a demonstration of these 5 things work better if I stuck with one theme?
For example, at my office, there's a beautiful spit of land that sticks out into the ocean and it's lined with flowering bushes and palm trees.
For The Thing Itself, maybe a landscape shot of the point of land with all the trees, the ocean, sky and bushes in it. For The Detail, a zoomed in picture of a bee buzzing around one of the flowers. For The Frame, selecting one tree photograph, but only including the trunk...cutting off the top of the tree leaving the viewer to wonder what's up there? For Time, catching a bird landing within the palm fronds. For Vantage Point, maybe putting the camera right up on the trunk of the tree pointing up with a shallow DOF so the top of the tree is blurry.

These are my initial thoughts on how to approach this week's assignment. I hope that I'm not asking for too much hand holding here, but I've been doing pretty well in this class thus far, but I'm a bit confused at this point.

Thank you.
Ed

 

[photoguy99]

Good ideas but don't just illustrate the concept. You want a good photo each time. Not just any Time, but the right Time. The right Time might be obvious or not. It should be distinct as a moment, certainly. Same for the rest!

Keep thinking it through. I like the unified theme concept.

 

[dennybeall]

If you take your 5 pictures and place those 5 among 20 other random pictures - Could someone pick out those 5 that go together?

 

[photoguy99]

I'm not sure the question makes sense. The point is that Sarkowski's five elements, aspects, stages, whatever they are, are all different. Five photos wouldn't necessarily 'go together' unless like the OP you were specifically tying them together with a common subject.