Monday, October 25, 2010

owly & a compliment

Today I recieved a very kind compliment about my photography, and I clumsily deflected it with some crazy talk about it being all luck that someone can take 500 photographs, and get three good ones. I realize the ones I show off are nice, and I really will only admit I have a good eye for compositions, and how to best manipulate the light I've managed to catch through a lens. I do love my photographs.

A photographer once told another photographer, "Never let them see your crap!" I suppose this is necessary to uphold an illusion that we always take beautiful photographs. This may also be the reason many people feel they are not artists. Are all people really capable of creating good art? Or do they just not know it when they see it? Do I want everyone to feel they can make art? Or don't I?

Really, does it take an artist to shoot a photo? When I think about that, I realize it does not. Nor does it take any real talent to grab a camera and call yourself a photographer these days. So many people are making a living wielding a Nikon and a copy of PhotoShop. The more nonsense they throw out there, the more confusing the situation becomes. The public really does not know the difference. In fact, the more trendy it is, the more they seem to eat it up.

I have lately been concerned about the prevalence of trendy looking portraits, with no head. Purposeful decapitation. Deliver me please from portraits of a pregnant torso gripping her abdomen. I do not want to think about the headless wedding couple's snazzy outfits, I want to see their smiling faces! Plucked chicken infants served up naked on a shiny kitchen table in a crochet bonnet cause me to recoil.

Usually I do not find myself that excited about inappropriate trends in photography, but lately I have noticed more weirdness in commercial portraits than I can handle. And, yes, I can do better! Sincerely I can.

Meanwhile, I am headed in other directions.




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