Is It Art?

Another FaceBook inspired post. Today a young photographer was bemoaning his photography which he didn’t think compared to the photography of any of the great photographers of the past. A lot of well-meaning comments were directed towards his style of shooting and the equipment he might consider. Some suggested a better grounding in the “rules” of photography like the rule of thirds.

But I thought something different. This is what I wrote:

This is one of the best discussions on photography I’ve ever read on FB which generally I consider an artistic wasteland populated by new zombie photographers shooting the same vacuous stuff over and over again. So for reference I shot pro for news and national magazines for 60 years and taught for a national retailer and my observation Alexander is your issue has nothing to do with photography.

Here’s my reasoning: I can shoot just about anything, anywhere at any time and it will be at the least a publishable photo worth of being paid for and appreciated……..but is it art? LOL

You see shooting as an amateur or worse shooting as an artist requires a completely different skill set than that of the professional shooter or photography enthusiast. Photographic artists aren’t interested in cameras or lenses or rules of thirds or sometimes even being in focus LOL.

No what they care about is what they are seeing in their mind’s eye and then reproducing it so the rest of us can get a sense of what they see. I have seen photos produced by pinhole cameras and cameras using wet-plate Civil War technology and street art shot on point-and-shoots that are more artistic and meaningful than anything I am shooting with my $10,000 top-of-the-line equipment.

No the issue isn’t with your photography or the place where you live or even the valiant efforts you are making. What I would suggest is put your camera away. Seek out a guru (YouTube videos will do). Sit on a mountaintop (a street bench again will do). Then meditate (there are online and in person workshops on how to allow thoughts to float away as you sit). I would highly recommend Erchart Tolle’s The Power of Now (to ground you) and Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way which I am currently doing her recommended journaling exercises.

Once you feel you’re ready (and this process doesn’t need to be too long to work) then pick up your camera (I am back to shooting film cameras Nikon FM2 & FE – just got a Rolliecord for $50 —- and using an external incident light meter to slow me down and get me out of “pro work mode”) then start shooting images as they appear before you. If you want to supercharge the process develop a project. I’m considering shooting body tattoos closeup with or without faces as something that interests me and gives me permission in my own mind to approach people I might not otherwise approach. Another pro friend of mine shot a book about a very photogenic girl who was doing drugs and how that lifestyle ravaged her body and then how much better she looked once she stopped and then got married and had a child.

It’s all out there waiting for us. The challenge is to prepare ourselves to see it for what it is.