October 18, 2021

Everything It Seems Is A Photo Op

Everything has the potential to become a great image but is it an image with depth, reflecting your inner vision or is it just an image the photographer was playing around with and liked what he felt was a good image, not necessarily a great, unique one, but worthy of publication.

In Sontag Book, Weston described his own work, "showing to them what their own unseeing eyes had missed."

Weston calls photography, "A way to self-development, a means to discover and identify oneself with all manifestations of basic forms-with nature, the source."

Sontag responds to Weston's claim, "contrary to what Weston asserts, the habit of photographic seeing-of looking at reality as an array of potential photographs-creates estrangement from, rather than union with, nature."Sontag, "beauty requires the imprint of a human decision: that this would make a good photograph and that the good picture would make some comment. It proved more important to reveal the elegant form of a toilet bowl, the subject of a series of pictures Weston did in Mexico in 1925, than the poetic magnitude of a snowflake or a coal fossil."

All photographers at one time or another made an image that was humorous without depth of expressing an inner vision but an image that the photographer wanted the viewer to enjoy.

The image present is not real, it is a reflection captured digitally, it has the making of personality but it is just a copy of an outer expression of a subject and not a purposed inner revelation of a unique idea with substance, but just your inner self trying out subjects that haven’t been photographed before?

We seek our reflections to be noticed in society, the in crowd, a popularity contest for the wealthy to like your work.

We imitate what we desire, what we think will become our true unique perspective. A calling card recognizable because of your unique photographic expressions.

What we see and what we feel are two roads that one must reckon with!

Most good photographers hunt for a subject that expresses a deep unique feeling, possibly a memory from childhood, and have the instinct to see and anticipate the sun’s light that would illuminate your composition and bring out details at first invisible as you press the shutter.

In today's anything goes, the snap shot has become art. A moment taken of the place we passed without any thought of digging deeper into the mental vision demanding you stop and look, your process of creating your inner world externalized has nothing to do with uniqueness but a run and gun approach of snapping shots of subjects without a visual plan. 

The graffiti artist becoming a Picasso, the blending of art with reality, confusing the senses.

A popular website becoming a hit and advertisers wanting to use your images as a means to sell products and you ok it without realizing your being used.

Your growing ability to look for details in the landscape that will enhance your choice of composition that highlights the subject from a new angle giving the viewer an original insight into the scene you created.

By isolating certain elements in the scene you were able to compose a unique representation of your inner vision for others to enjoy.

Why create an image if it is not your own personal representation. Your own interpretation of the scene discovered. You must have time and the physical will to concentrate on your subject, slowly accumulating details that will be part of the final photograph. In this way you will not be copying anyone else’s attempts to transcend what has already been accomplished but vying for that composition that truly expresses your inner mood at the time the shutter was released.

Having an independent vision of the scene before you, a concept you have been waiting to try, looking for what is important in your frame that will begin your journey to discovery, that will lead you to your original concept that challenges your intuitive inner sight and will give the viewer an image they have never seen before.

A unique quality of light, an inner revelation that gives the scene its originality for why create an image others have done. You might as well snap a couple of images without a purpose, you need more than a lazy mind to make great photographs.

But with depth, and a new perspective your subject can intrigue the audience viewing your inner visual uniqueness to actually pause and look deeper at what you have created.

We don’t see beyond the created structure that determines our factual existence. We adapt our senses to conform to the existing formulas of living in the present moments with our growing doubts and painful realizations that we have been duped to think in a certain confined way as herded donkeys caring the weight for the wealthy landlords.

There is an overload of images being taken, a helter-skelter approach to taking picture. This tsunami of pictures is overwhelming the senses. In the past image creation had a purpose and your home images were just that your memories of your family. Now everything it seems is a photo op and your family is just a means to exploit your children and relatives on social media.

People just give their personal lives away without thinking of the ramifications of targeted advertisers using your images to promote and sell you products you don’t need.