Radical departure

[lct]

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Nicely said but you're photographing for yourself more so than for others don't you. Not a criticism at all .

[Peter H]

Nicely said but you're photographing for yourself more so than for others don't you. Not a criticism at all .

 

 

That's for others to decide. Some people really enjoy what I do and others don't understand it or think it's a waste of time. 

 

I do a lot of photography for other people but obviously only those who appreciate my style ask me to work for them. 

 

Whilst the way I have described it makes it sound very personal, I hope there's a sort of universality about it, but obviously we don't all see the world in the same way.

Edited December 12, 2016 by Peter H

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[Exodies]

Me too. Someone asked me what I photograph and I said "what is".

This is fine for one's own pictures but looking at someone else's don't you need to know their intention before you can form an opinion?

[pgk]

But the reality of most of our lives is that we are surrounded by things generally regarded as too mundane to be worthy of a photograph. Yet these are the things that are the substance of our lives. The details that people overlook, the things that never establish themselves as visually significant, and certainly not worth recording because they are commonplace and dull.

.....

The things that are all around us and removed from our photography by means of selective focus and careful framing and composition: these are the things I want to record.

 

Its odd that you should say this because the few images I have which I feel benefit from the latest and most precise lenses fall into the category of being of the relatively 'ordinary' although this in itself is inevitably a less than adequate description. The images that work best like this to me though, do not need to be of 'infinite' depth of field' but they do need to render with an absolute precision where it matters.

 

I also find it interesting how we hark back to the past even in terms of how we define types/genres of photography. "Street' photography for example, still evokes the idea of people going about their business in public places - in reality we go about our business today in cars so 'street' photography should have changed and be more about our increasing role within vehicles but to a large extent it hasn't really. And just perhaps it is that we see a current world so precisely in many ways (consumer goods are incredibly built with extraordinary attention to details) that we now want to record it in the same way - just a thought - yours was an interesting post.

[Peter H]

Me too. Someone asked me what I photograph and I said "what is".

This is fine for one's own pictures but looking at someone else's don't you need to know their intention before you can form an opinion?

 

 

I don't think photography is really a matter of other people's opinions, but I do know what you mean. I feel it is more a matter of being an extension of your own sensibility.

 

I tend to think that in all creative endeavours the best you can do is be honest to yourself. If other people appreciate and enjoy what you do, so much the better, but if you start out trying to please others, then you'll almost certainly lose sight of what matters most to you. And that, the thing you are trying to do, is where the interest lies for others too, unless all they want is decoration. Or unless they are paying you to do something specific like make a wedding album or something of that sort, which is not what I'm talking about here.

 

Whether you choose to explain what you're trying to do is a personal choice. I'm happy trying to do that but many people aren't. 

 

And you can't use words to explain pictures fully anyway, otherwise you wouldn't need the pictures. But I believe a bit of explanation can help. And it's more friendly. But it shouldn't be treated as compulsory.