It's a bit like flying - upside down.
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| Timing is key, but it means next to nothing if you cannot anticipate. Not being a kite surfer I had to quickly learn enough about wind to know when big air happened to nail a shot. |
As humans, social animals, we seem to gravitate toward storytelling - it is inescapable. The CEO narcisist, the obsessive athlete mastering wind or water or stone, and the selfless nun living among lepers - we at once internalize certain feelings to gain a bit of consonance with abilities we believe we lack or are incapable of nurturing en extremis.
Interesting that something that lacks dimension of sound, motion and depth - A static photo can deliver us there and so effectively. Emotionally, spiritually, mentally and I would argue physically.
As a photographer and editor and critic I am constantly analyzing, consciously or not, what the ingredients are that provide for an intense personal response when the "right" image is viewed. I have come up with a few debatable ideas...
Bennett's Visual Manifesto - a work in progress...
1. Filter: We are what we are not as we are not what we are, thus we are all. Perspective is King/Queen - Our internal dialogue with self, ego and our place in the world is the one constant that only dies with our physical beings. We may quiet the internal voices for a while but they are always there. Good, bad and all between. We are animals of blood and bone - and consciousness and so we give in or give up. By giving in we look at hundreds, sometimes thousands of images a day. With our eyes as they bounce through our "reality". But equally as "real" are the images on our phones, computer screens, the gallery, magazines. How? Because we give them life and power with our reactions to them. They (can) create a physical response. Facebook and Instagram and emojis are the external proof. In this miasma of color, saturation, contrast, pixels we constantly shape and imagine and dream ourselves into reality. Without it we would cease to be, like the tree falling in an empty forest. If no one saw it happen, it did not happen. Thus it is important to save your emotional/physical response for the channels/feeds that nurture and inspire. What filters do I use for my camera? Usually none. I like it raw. But I am selective as to what I point it at - what I keep in the frame is less important as to what I keep out. I like the intimacy of getting very close to the subject and filtering out the noise of the rest of experience. Filtering for me is kind of like finding "flow", connecting... It is the zen of the photographic moment.
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| I spent the morning forcing myself to "see" in 14mm, not changing focal length... I hate having to crop in post, it means I am not seeing or anticipating correctly if I have to rely on the crop tool. |
2. Focal Length: I recently rented a 14mm. It is crucial to have different "eyes" in your bag of visual tricks (50mm 85 and 70-300). I want the experience that my subject/athlete has so I think how can I create this reality? Take the shot from behind their ear, down the arm as it holds a piece of stone perhaps. For this I like to shoot wide. I need to create a story in one image. The eye (at roughly 50mm) filters out too much to allow this very effectively. Going wide I can get a greater sense of place, of the necessary geography. I see the wax on the surfboard but I am also getting a sense of being swallowed, of the blue chill created by the world of water in front of me.
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| I kept staring at the sun, knowing before too long an image would present itself. I thought it would be a surfer or kiteboarder... Then I saw him... 200 mm zoom waiting a few seconds for the harmony of subject and sky to align once I was where I needed to be. |
3. Focus: When we tell our stories we generally have a point to get across, or perhaps like my blog, it might just be a seemingly senseless amalgam of detail that if we are lucky there are dots we might connect in our brain to reach a worthwhile pinnacle of comprehension. With an image, without the use of words it is a greater challenge. You must hit the viewer over the head, create enough awareness in a single second, to keep them transfixed. Where the hell is my eye going to? What did this author intend? If the details are interesting enough you will get there. Depth of field allows for this. This is one reason I really like to shoot shallow. In a world drowning in saturation, good and bad, we sometimes need to be directed to that pinpoint nexus where it all makes sense at 1.4 - this is a way to create depth, meaning. Instagram makes it easy with its post-thought vignette feature. I like anticipating, and then creating it, in the moment as I snap the shutter...
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| As a photographer we often end up "creating" moments. I choose not to most often wishing to be a ghost and capturing a more natural sense. But sometimes a stranger lets you get lens to eyeball with a 14mm and you dance with it - that split second of synergy, we communicate. This was a sober event, a paddle out in remembrance of 6 murdered students. But the sun, flowers and her smile tells a better story I think. When it works it works. |
4. Contrast: The darkness of the light, and the lightness in the dark... The picture box is a memory machine. Soul stealer. A thief of time. It is the captured expression of the Yin and the Yang that allows this contrast to best be delivered. Embrace it. It is the starkness, the resolute acceptance that brings us there. It happened... Without shadow, color shift we are lost. There is also the contrast of what makes an evocative image and what is a snapshot that Ollie the Octopus took to get a nugget of food... We, photographer or not, are critics and editors and with a galaxy glut of sad selfies we are becoming intimately aware of the ingredients that across the board, shake us awake...
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| We cannot create natural light. I like that. |
5. Perfection: What is the perfect image? A witches brew of ego, honesty, timing, beauty, horror? Who cares. If it is fresh and good - it is good. I am pretty sure most of the "ingredients" are the same... And I like to cook - and try new recipes... And stare at the sun and make mistakes. If it inspires something and is giving those tired synapses a workout it's working.
all images ©Bennett Barthelemy May 2016
