What Is This, Why Is This?

Morning Snowfall

I read a ton of articles on photography, at least 5 or 6 a day.  All of them are written by what appears to be professionals or semi professionals who have, I think, been doing this a heck of a lot longer than I have.  The subjects are usually technique or tech based.  With the internet, we no longer have to have a one on one lesson or take a class or even read a book about how to operate a camera properly, or use off camera lighting, or whatever.  Everything is right there in videos or 6 paragraph blurbs.  It's great.  Except that it kinda isn't.  I have been having the feeling in the back of my mind that I've been missing something about photography.  It wasn't comprehension on the technicalities and it certainly wasn't to do with the love of taking photographs.  I just had this suspicion that I had skipped over something vital in my journey of learning and falling in love with the art.  There are tons of things out there about how to use a camera, or set up a shot, or edit it, or sell it, or sell yourself, but all that stuff started to seem superfluous.  There had to more to photography than f-stops, the rule of thirds, and Lightroom presets.  Photography has been around since the 1830's in one form or another, and what we have now is a descendent of those earlier endeavors.  Today everything is focused on tech and technique, but very few people even think about the actual images.  Now it's all about pixels, and sharpness, and bokeh, and chromatic aberration.

But a perfect technical image isn't necessarily as pleasing as one that is blurred and grainy.  Why?  What makes one photograph impactful, while another is just a blah entry into the over saturated catalogue floating around out there?  Then I realized what was missing.  Nearly all of us who are out shooting today, who came to photography well after the digital revolution, who learned about it online in blogs, and forums, and just basic shooting were missing a huge slice of the field- the soul, the heritage, the intimate knowledge and comprehension of what photography is.  Today, so many people discover the love shooting and jump into the field as a professional or semi professional without ever educating themselves about photography itself.  How many enthusiasts out there who shoot their friends' weddings or sell calendars (like myself) have a library of photography publications?  Could they look to the photography of the past and see its value?  Or is it just like everything else, and no one gives a second thought to the past?

But, I think knowledge of what came before is vital to understanding and improving what we do, be it photography, or creative writing, or design.  Would someone who wants to write novels seriously jump in without ever introducing themselves to the greats- Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Morrison, Steinbeck, Joyce?  I certainly hope not.  Then, why do those of us who pick up a camera with some semblance of seriousness, not honor photography in the same way?  We know a novel is good or bad because we've read a good one before.  Photography, of course, has a more personal effect on us, as other art forms do, but still we know a good photograph from a bad one.  The trouble is, it seems, a lot of us don't know why it is good.  I think that is because we jump in feet first and start snapping away and never get around to educating ourselves about anything beyond sensor sizes and flash settings.  Why?  I don't really know.  Maybe it is because we can learn anything on the internet, or because this world we live in is in such a rush, or because smartphones have caused photography to be so accessible that it has become banal.  Maybe we leap too soon because we get some good feedback and encouragement and our social media culture almost demands that we market ourselves and do so quickly.

I look at a ton of photographs everyday, hundreds.  I scroll through the Instagram feed a couple times a day because I genuinely love looking at images, but I start to see in the end the same photography over and over and over again.  Ok, it's not the same photograph exactly, but it is basically the same extrapolation of an image.  Commercial portraits of newlyweds, or engagements, or kids are usually done in natural light, usually in golden hour, someone must be wearing flannel, and it's all about the bokeh.  Studio photographers perhaps in the response to the hipster outdoor look respond, it seems, by taking on a harsher look with more dramatic lighting.  Landscape photographers have started to add people into their shots, usually dead center and shot from behind.  Starfield shots now all seem to have someone in them lining their flashlight up with the Milky Way.  Long exposures (an admitted favorite of mine) have been around for a while, but are certainly making a strong resurgence.  Then of course, there are the trends in post, thanks to Instagram.  Split toning is back, and so is the film look (oh the irony).  I'm not saying these images or trends are bad, in fact they are very effective.  But, I've begun to ask myself if we're all just shooting like this for marketing, the fine art photographer becoming just as commercial as the commercial photographer?  Maybe we're all just copying each other because someone somewhere said this or that makes a good photograph, but the rest of us, the rabble, don't know who it was or why they said it.  Maybe if we looked back, before digital and smartphones, and the internet, when photographers used simpler, yet more finicky technology, when their goal was a great image, not the camera, not themselves, we can fathom the complexities and the essence of photography itself.  Then maybe, just maybe, we can see the world as photographers should and create impactful, authentic, and unique images all our own.

One of the articles I read was about what a photographer (Carla Coulson) would tell themselves if they could go back in time before they started their business.  This grabbed my attention, because I suspected it would touch on some of these questions I was currently having.  Sure enough, it did.  Nearly everything she brought up- letting your creativity breathe, taking time to learn and build the portfolio for a long a while before putting pressure on yourself to make money-  is exactly what I was thinking.  Photography, like anything else, needs to be understood and learned over time, patiently and carefully.  It should be cultivated.  If we are going to subscribe to this field and call ourselves photographers, we should be willing to take the time to do that.

For me, part of that process is really delving into the heritage of photography, immersing myself in great images of the print era so I can learn more about what makes a photograph truly great.  I also have decided to learn the theory behind photography, so that means reading a lot of books.  Lastly, it means going to see great photography, not just scrolling through Instagram.  Sure there are great images on there, but there  many more great and far more significant images hanging on gallery walls, in exhibitions, and in museums.  I want to learn more about the field than the tech, I want to get to know its soul.  If that helps improve my work along the way, even better!

The Orchard