I am reading a book I picked up at the Photo-eye Gallery and book store in Santa Fe NM. It is titled “Teaching Photography, notes assembled” written by Philip Perkis. It is an excellent book and has a lot of meat one can chew on. Here is one thought to chew on from one chapter. A photograph is an Idea. It is my idea, it is an idea in my head. This is at the core of Art. What is in your head, we all joke “what color is the sky in your world?” but this has significance in the world of art and in my photography. I want to show what is in my head and what I think is beautiful, how God has revealed the world to me and how I see it. How are you going to communicate the world to others using the hammer in your hand? “A photograph is an idea manifested outside of time. it is an insight made visible.” The chapter starts out with a question “How long does it take to get an idea?” The biggest question is how to get the idea, bring it out in a photograph and make that photograph compelling? What is in my head needs clarity, simplicity and good light. I think that is what needs to be in all my photographs. If I can accomplish this I might be on the right track to making a successful photograph. Life is very distracting now, IPad, IPhone, Internet, friends, radios, music, snapshots shown everywhere, facebook, twitter. Life is speeding up and I need to slow down and look and see, really see what is going on and the beauty all around us in the simple things. More to come in this discussion with most likely myself written on the Internet.
I guess the question is becoming what is important in a photograph, a good photograph, one that anyone can pick up and the first words out of their mouth is, wow!
I am finding I like simple, and black and white. I will work on this as the week goes on. Look for a special, not to be repeated for 4 years, post at the end of the month.
ML
