Seeing - June 27, 2005

One of the things I’m trying to work through as a new photographer is this idea of “seeing.” How does photography affect the way I see things? And how does the way I see things affect my photography?

I guess the hardest thing for me is the huge difference between the way I see things and the way I photograph them. That is to say: things which strike me visually in the purest way don’t necessarily make good pictures, or beautiful or interesting pictures. Sometimes they make very cliché pictures. *sigh*

As I look at things with the idea of photographing them, I find myself trying to see it as I think it will look in a picture. And so the way I look at things is changing. But it’s a process that I'm just starting. God I’m so surprised sometimes at how my pictures turn out. I’ll go out and shoot fifty or so pictures, and I’ll be heading home really excited about five or six. At least half the time, though, those will be crap, and some other picture that I hardly thought about ends up being the one I spend the most time with. I still have a lot to learn.

Gary Winogrand said: “I photograph something to see what it looks like photographed.”

Right on, Gary.

Comments

you have a nice photoblog ! you are on my favorites on photoblogs.org !

Posted by: Marius Muscalu on July 7, 2005 01:41 PM