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01/20/2008 04:08:51 PM · #1 |
So I have recently joined the only photography class offered at my school. It turns out I am pretty much the only one with an serious photography experience, and my teacher is concerned that I will be bored. However I sent her some of my work and she had so much to say about it and I feel completely inspired and yet at the same time totally lost. I thought I would share some of her input with the community here because it has a lot to say about finding your personal style and identifying how you are going to communicate with your art.
*****
As you say it is evident that you have practiced your craft and your art. You do have an eye and at times a very original one. The next step is to make it yours and yours alone.
I would like you to go on line and find professional work that you admire by contemporary fine art photographers. Who are your influences? We need to clarify what is unique in your work and how you can move into that direction and at the same time effectively apply it to your portrait work. You need to know the history of portrait photography which was built upon the history of painting.
Try out different techiques as one must to discover what is unique in their own view of the world of photography. Try to write down what your own viewpoint and theory is about photography. What does photography mean to you?
Since you have mastered the basics for composition and design can you start thinking about how you can develop that knowledge further. For example, it is obvious that Skoglund knows composition and color relationships, but she has moved beyond the basics and into a theory about how she wants us to view the world or her world. You are more than able and ready to develop your own theories about image making so that we can start to say that is a McAdams work. To do so you have to analyze more than what you like to shoot , but how to compose, what types of color or effects and at what level of detail. What is it you want to say about your subjects. You say its easy for you to have your subject feel comfortable, but what is the opposite of that if you were to develop in the opposite direction. Narrow down your details about your work as you have with Skoglund or Boyd Webb. He does it by creating other worlds to photograph and Sandy does it by disturbing our expectations of real world color and spatial development of the subjects. Tell me in detail what you are doing in your images with color, form and spatial development. To develop your own style that is unique to you requires that you know the history of the image in both painting and photography. What theory would you try to establish in your image making?
*****
Although I feel slightly overwhelmed, she is definitely forcing me to take it up a notch with my photography which I love and it really drives me.
Hope this helps or inspires someone else here.
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01/20/2008 08:30:00 PM · #2 |
| I am not sure if anyone saw this earlier but I am gonna bump it for those who missed it. |
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01/20/2008 09:11:50 PM · #3 |
| To find our "eye" so we are individual is very hard in photography. I have not looked at many artists of today, but think that I am more drawn to unique processing, rather than photography in its purest sense. As to portraiture, well, that is going to be very difficult to add your own personal touch. I agree that much can be found in fine art of the past. That is where I came up with an idea of taking classic portrait paintings and using subjects of today in similar settings. I began looking at people and started thinking "What do I see when I look at that person?" One of my ex-managers was a very large man with an extremely cocky attitude. I immediately saw him dressed in green velvet with a huge Musketeer style hat with a large feather hanging out of it. I saw him in a setting similar to a fox hunt, with gothic, softened tree trunks behind him and a musket in his hand. Another girl I work with I saw as a milk maid with a dutch style hat, an apron, and working in a wooden kitchen. I could not believe the images I began seeing as I looked at people and imagined them in classic paintings. It is fun, but to try to take portraits to complete your vision is expensive. That is why I never pursued it. Anyway, good luck with your search. For me, I am still in the stage of just trying to get clear shots with good composition and some interest factor. Still not there. Might never get there. But I will keep on trying, then I can start exploring where I want to go with it. |
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01/20/2008 10:17:35 PM · #4 |
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01/20/2008 10:26:09 PM · #5 |
maybe I am way off base, but Cindy Sherman might be of interest to you
Cindy Sherman |
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01/20/2008 10:29:47 PM · #6 |
That's a heck of a teacher...
R.
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01/20/2008 11:14:53 PM · #7 |
I wish I had some useful info, but it is more of a wow post.
Very Nice Email |
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01/20/2008 11:55:06 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
That's a heck of a teacher...
R. |
was thinking the same. |
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