In analog photography, the image is invisible and remains hidden on the film until it magically appears during development. Poetry can remain in our minds like a latent image. Here is a poem I wrote about this phenomenon.
It seems that good photos have just the right amount of content—not too busy, not too sparse. One famous quote from National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson, advises, “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” And if you happen to be standing in front of some interesting stuff, there is always the question of how much to include in the frame.
American photographer Lee Friedlander, famous for his pioneering photos of the urban social landscape, has a talent for filling his photos with visual content without making them seem overly crowded. Eric Kim (whom I also cited last week) writes on his blog, ”Friedlander was very conscious of how he framed his scenes, and wanted to add more complexity to his shots through adding content of interest.”
Lee Friedlander accomplished this by using a wide-angle lens—usually a 35mm. That way objects in the foreground can remain in focus along with background elements. Though complexity is not always the answer, it certainly adds interest.
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Photo tip: If you have a wide-angle lens, try shooting with only that lens for a week or two. Make note of how this perspective changes the content in your photos.
Photographer Willliam Eggleston is known for legitimizing colour photography as art. His photos are a visual treat without clichés—no sunsets, no lighthouses. Instead, he has ordinary scenes and everyday objects—things that we mostly pass by without notice.
As Eudora Welty says in her introduction to Eggleston’s book The Democratic Forest (1989), one of his photographs might include “old tyres, Dr. Pepper machines, discarded air-conditioners, vending machines, empty and dirty Coca-Cola bottles, torn posters, power poles and power wires, street barricades, one-way signs, detour signs, No Parking signs, parking meters and palm trees crowding the same curb.”
Eggleston looks at the world in a democratic way; all things, even the most banal, are worth photographing. It’s a form of mindfulness—being aware and concentrating on the moment.
“I just wait until [my subject] appears, which is often where I happen to be. Might be something right across the street. Might be something on down the road. And I’m usually very pleased when I get the image back. It’s usually exactly what I saw. I don’t have any favorites. Every picture is equal but different.” – William Eggleston
When I’m in that zone, I take time to observe everything around me. I find it relaxing and meditative. And it can lead to photos of brushes and brooms!
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Photo tip: Try taking photos just where you happen to be. In the coffee shop, in your backyard, in the parking lot. You don’t need to go to Mt. Everest to get good photos.
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to “imperfect beauty.” It’s an aesthetic that comes from Buddhist teaching; it describes a beauty that’s imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
Though there is something appealing about fresh new things wrapped in plastic, we often prefer old, worn-out things. I think of my old LPs with their crackle and pops; my t-shirts from Japan in the 1980’s; a faded hockey team photo from 1972; a baseball glove from 1987. You have your own long list, I’m sure.
Lots of times you may find yourself seeking this wabi-sabi aspect in your photographs. It’s something I do often in my photography–preferring to shoot a run-down street sign over a shiny new one. The lyric I’ve seen most often invoked in discussing wabi-sabi is from “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
There could be many interpretations of the faded “wrong way” sign in the photo above: this is the wrong way to maintain a street sign, or it’s just a sign of the times. It might as well say, “Nothing lasts forever.”
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Photo tip: Juxtaposition can lead to visual interest. Try including an object in the foreground that seems incongruous with the rest of the scene.
Scale can be deceiving in photographs, and sometimes it intended to be that way. A photograph can be both fact and fiction, both a document and a lie. It may contain numerous narratives that spring from our imagination. It can be staged or manipulated in Photoshop, yet still be a document. These days the line between fact and fiction has become blurred.
According to photographer Martin Parr, “Most of the photographs in your paper, unless they are hard news, are lies. Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality. In the cookery pages, the food always looks amazing, right? Most of the pictures we consume are propaganda.”
My photography has always been rooted in the documentary tradition–I’m not one for manipulation, or post-production. Most everything is achieved by where I stand and when I take the photo–(light is a crucial component as well). But sometimes I aim to take photos that are ambiguous. They look like manipulated photos, yet they are not. Using scale is one way to achieve this sense of ambiguity.
This photo was taken in Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia,–a place that is both beautiful and surreal. The rocks in the frame are actually much smaller than the house, but you may disagree!
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Photo tip: Scale provides a frame of reference. A person or object is often put in the frame as a reference point. Try creating tension by including an object of unknown size in the frame.
