The Nature of (my) Photograhs

Reading this interview between Seven Shore and Luc Sante about Shore's book The Nature of Photographs has revealed new ways of how I think about photography and how I photograph. The most influential aspect of reading this interview is that it made me stop and really think about my own techniques and work. When I am going through the process of creating a photograph, many  times I am very aware of what I want the photograph to look like exactly. I'll think about where I'll need to be, at what time for what lighting, props, poses, etc. But there are also many times where, when I am stuck in a conceptual rut, I go out into the world unknowing and the photographs form around me in real life. There have been many times where I have had ideas for a shoot and have received photographs that didn't excite me as ones that came from endless wandering and good timing.

With some of the photographs I have created so far this semester, I can apply this idea about being hyper-aware versus being able to create photographs "mindlessly". For example, during shooting for the current events assignment, I was being very conscious with my decision making. I had previously researched churches, picked my "models", planned poses and my framing (wanted it to appear very symmetrical and have religious icons centered whenever possible). All these conscious decisions allowed me to make the images more fluidly while embedding other symbols, emotions, etc. into the image to make it more than just an image of reality.

That being said, no matter how conscious I was, there were things I was not so conscious about, and I did end up having some "happy accidents". For example, one of my images has a natural vignette due to the lighting of the frame. Although I was conscious of most aspects, that also distracted from realizing those small things in the background until after the picture is made.

On the flip-side to this, when I went shooting in the city to take pictures of strangers, I was more "mindless" in finding my subjects and locations. However, when I did, i felt like i was able to pay closer attention to the littler things such as lights and shadows, figures or objects in the background, etc. It's a simple, yet complex process to construct a photograph.