Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
"I wish I had some of the great subjects you are finding in your area."
The quote above is from a comment left by a fellow RFF member on my "New Photos From Fort Wayne" thread. I have spent more than 20 years documenting life in my hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I began typing a response to that comment, then realized I was writing something that ought to be the basis for another discussion, so I have written my response below. It is my advice to anyone having trouble finding things to photograph.
My answer:
Great subject matter is easy to find, but most photographers go at it from the wrong direction. You have to have something you want to say to the world. You have to be interested in something and you have to want to tell its story through your photographs.
Most photographers instead go out with a camera looking for 'something interesting' or 'something pretty' or something 'visually striking.' The photographs made through this mode of work often lack depth because there's nothing to them but a desire to make a pretty picture. In addition, when one puts together a portfolio of such work (on a website, or in an exhibit, or your portfolio book), there is no cohesive body of work.
Some people try to overcome that by creating a 'style' that is based on using unique techniques (like alt processes), exotic equipment, or visual gimmicks like overprocessed HDR images. In the end, this fails because once you get past the gimmick, you still have to confront the image and what it depicts.
If you want to make great photographs, start by having something you want to say to the world, something you want people to see, to notice, to remember. Once you have that in mind, you'll start seeing good subject matter. "Good" means things that fit into the story you want to tell. Just walking around with a camera hoping to see something interesting is not a good strategy (though carrying a camera all the time once you know what you want to say with your work IS a good idea!).
The quote above is from a comment left by a fellow RFF member on my "New Photos From Fort Wayne" thread. I have spent more than 20 years documenting life in my hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I began typing a response to that comment, then realized I was writing something that ought to be the basis for another discussion, so I have written my response below. It is my advice to anyone having trouble finding things to photograph.
My answer:
Great subject matter is easy to find, but most photographers go at it from the wrong direction. You have to have something you want to say to the world. You have to be interested in something and you have to want to tell its story through your photographs.
Most photographers instead go out with a camera looking for 'something interesting' or 'something pretty' or something 'visually striking.' The photographs made through this mode of work often lack depth because there's nothing to them but a desire to make a pretty picture. In addition, when one puts together a portfolio of such work (on a website, or in an exhibit, or your portfolio book), there is no cohesive body of work.
Some people try to overcome that by creating a 'style' that is based on using unique techniques (like alt processes), exotic equipment, or visual gimmicks like overprocessed HDR images. In the end, this fails because once you get past the gimmick, you still have to confront the image and what it depicts.
If you want to make great photographs, start by having something you want to say to the world, something you want people to see, to notice, to remember. Once you have that in mind, you'll start seeing good subject matter. "Good" means things that fit into the story you want to tell. Just walking around with a camera hoping to see something interesting is not a good strategy (though carrying a camera all the time once you know what you want to say with your work IS a good idea!).
ornate_wrasse
Moderator
Very well said, Chris.
I recently captured the following image at a ghost town I recently visited while on a workshop called Ghost Towns of the Mojave. It was a very desolate place but I wanted to tell a story. I must have succeeded because when I posted it on Facebook, some folks commented that it told a story. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. But I strongly agree with you that if you want to tell something to the world, you are more likely to succeed.
I recently captured the following image at a ghost town I recently visited while on a workshop called Ghost Towns of the Mojave. It was a very desolate place but I wanted to tell a story. I must have succeeded because when I posted it on Facebook, some folks commented that it told a story. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. But I strongly agree with you that if you want to tell something to the world, you are more likely to succeed.
Freakscene
Obscure member
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/kwilecki
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/gedney
Among the best bodies of work I’ve seen. Great photos of ordinary places. Gedney’s worst photos are from India and other exotic places.
Marty
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/gedney
Among the best bodies of work I’ve seen. Great photos of ordinary places. Gedney’s worst photos are from India and other exotic places.
Marty
I understand what you are saying, but just walking around with a camera can help you figure out what you want to say ... especially when you are just starting. You do not get anything sitting at home with the camera on the shelf. You have to start somewhere and sometimes that is just photographing anything to get started. Once you make a few thousand bad photos of cliches and your spirits are still up...this is when you truly can start to make something else.
The thing is though... people who think you have great subject matter fail to realize that you work hard at finding it and also worked hard at seeing photographically. That takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. This is the part most people do not want to take time to do... they want it easy. I would imagine if the people who say you have great subject matter would go to where you photograph, they would not see it. This is the hardest thing to teach and to learn in photography...
emraphoto
Mentor
The Willecki work is outstanding.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Yes, I agree that for beginners what you are saying is true. I did a lot of that when I was young. There are a lot of people I have encountered who are still in that mode after many years, though.
There are a few photographers I have known for 20 years here in Fort Wayne who refuse to photograph anything here because "There's nothing here worth photographing." They make trips to the west (California, New Mexico, etc.) several times a year to make large format images of mountains, rocks, and desert scenes. Like Ansel Adams did, but their work is nowhere near as great as Adams' work was.
As you mentioned above, just being taken to a place with 'interesting' stuff to photograph won't make someone a great photographer. What these guys don't understand is that Adams didn't photograph that stuff because it was pretty. He was himself a child of the west. Grew up in San Francisco, spent many years actually living in Yosemite National Park. He loved the west, it was his home. Just like Indiana is mine. He knew the scenery, the culture, the history. He also had a passion for nature and spent his life campaigning to protect the natural beauty of California from over-development and pollution. That love of the places he photographed shows in his work, and it is missing from the photos taken by the people I know who travel there to photograph.
John Bragg
Well-known
Well said Chris. Photography is like any other language in that it only makes sense when you have something to say.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
They will write “I wish”, but Ports Waynies are within short drive in many places in NA.
Damaso
Photojournalist
You make an excellent point.
helen.HH
A smile & a wink…
Great Question/answer Chris...
Without Vision, it’s pointless
You must be seduced & motivated by the Image... an image
For instance: We have a silly fun thread here on Rff / camera & coffee
Just Brilliant the way people ‘see’ and or arrange a coffee and a camera
One just needs to let go, watch where the ‘Eye’ directs You, let the moment talk to you in visual
then just click the shutter
Be it on the street, walking a neighborhood, lockdown at home, somewhere abroad...
That one picture may Inspire a body of work or be Beautiful all on it’s own
Without Vision, it’s pointless
You must be seduced & motivated by the Image... an image
For instance: We have a silly fun thread here on Rff / camera & coffee
Just Brilliant the way people ‘see’ and or arrange a coffee and a camera
One just needs to let go, watch where the ‘Eye’ directs You, let the moment talk to you in visual
then just click the shutter
Be it on the street, walking a neighborhood, lockdown at home, somewhere abroad...
That one picture may Inspire a body of work or be Beautiful all on it’s own
CharlesDAMorgan
Mentor
So much to ponder, especially at present when photography opportunities are seemingly reduced by the circumstances. I have yet to get landscapes in any meaningful way, and sometimes I think it's because the vision in front of me is so ineffable, so sublime, that I lack the visual imagination to capture that in a photograph. And yes, I am guilty of some attempt at a style.
andyturk
Established
Most of the time when I'm walking with the camera, I don't feel as though I have Vision. I'd like to have some grand plan--some artistic idea would make a good preface for a photo book--but that hasn't happened yet. In the mean time, I just go out anyway and press the button.
The issue I think here is that they love Ansel Adams’ photos and the West as he portrayed it. It’s glamorized. They aren’t learning how to see their own way because they really want to be him. But do they put in the time and the effort? Probably not. I think you and I think the same... I prefer to photograph where I live because I can truly know the place... most people find the place they live to be boring and not exotic enough. It’s funny, when I go on a vacation, I don’t photograph much because I know I don’t have sufficient time to really explore the place.
helen.HH
A smile & a wink…
Well I beg to differ with You
perhaps you don’t Realize the Vision is what draws your Eye in and you shoot it...
It could simply be a branch, a smile, an old building, a play of light and shadows
Something beckons You to take that shot
Don’t overthink it... let the visual draw you in
Do as You do... keep shooting
I don’t think there ever is ‘great plan’ ... delusion and a grand folly to even think that
(We all fall prey to it in some way or another
And you know what...this is ok. Do you enjoy it? You don’t have to be great at something to enjoy it.
Larry Cloetta
Mentor
I would not disagree with anything that has been said here about a certain type of story telling photography, and Chris said it quite well as have others. The photos that Chris produces in Indiana are testament to the validity of his approach and vision.
However, someone needs to note that if the criterion for something being worthwhile photography, or being a good photographer, is about saying something to the world, or telling a story, then Edward Weston, Man Ray and others are not good photographers, and they’re some of the 20th century’s best. Weston did mostly nothing but “pretty pictures” and did them astoundingly well.
Documentary photography, telling stories, is a form of photography like any other, but it’s not superior to any other form of photography, nor does it define the approach a young photographer needs to take. “Saying something”, telling a story, is a sub-discipline of photography, it’s not the discipline. If someone has an urge to tell a story, and use photos to do it, then the guidelines and tips Chris has offered would seem very sound. But the art form of photography encompasses vastly more than telling a story, and need not be limited to things in a documentary series, regardless of how interesting that approach might be to some or even most people.
Photography is a big house with many rooms. In some of the rooms a sense of quiet beauty prevails and talking is absent.
However, someone needs to note that if the criterion for something being worthwhile photography, or being a good photographer, is about saying something to the world, or telling a story, then Edward Weston, Man Ray and others are not good photographers, and they’re some of the 20th century’s best. Weston did mostly nothing but “pretty pictures” and did them astoundingly well.
Documentary photography, telling stories, is a form of photography like any other, but it’s not superior to any other form of photography, nor does it define the approach a young photographer needs to take. “Saying something”, telling a story, is a sub-discipline of photography, it’s not the discipline. If someone has an urge to tell a story, and use photos to do it, then the guidelines and tips Chris has offered would seem very sound. But the art form of photography encompasses vastly more than telling a story, and need not be limited to things in a documentary series, regardless of how interesting that approach might be to some or even most people.
Photography is a big house with many rooms. In some of the rooms a sense of quiet beauty prevails and talking is absent.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I agree. They can't be Ansel Adams because, of course, no one can be someone else, and because they don't have the same motivation he did for photographing the things they photograph.
I hear it all the time here, that Indiana is "boring" and there's nothing here to photograph. You would not believe how many times I've had a local photographer express that sentiment AND tell me that one of my photos is incredible while asking where the location is. I tell them; I don't keep the locations of my subjects a secret. On several occasions, the photographer has exclaimed "I drive past that all the time! I never noticed it before!"
I’m not sure he meant story in regard to photojournalism. I think he meant your personal story, your personal connection to why you photograph what you photograph.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Weston and Man Ray were conceptual artists, meaning that a lot of their photos were scenes they set up rather than documents of the real world. Perfectly valid form of art. I didn't mention it for two reasons:
1: The essay was a response to someone who wanted to find subject matter as interesting as mine. I think its a fair assumption that he was looking to work in a more documentary mode rather than a conceptual mode.
2: RFF's membership is largely made up of people who do things like street photography and landscape work. My advice is good for those types of photographers.
Larry Cloetta
Mentor
Agreed, Chris. I was in no way saying that your advice was inappropriate, just trying to broaden it, and, yes, your observation 2. here is quite correct for the way of thinking that tends to go along with rangefinder cameras.
I was just throwing something out there for further consideration.