Photography is...interesting?
Photography is...interesting?
Thoughts on the four edged rectangle we look through to compose an image.
It really is interesting, photography.
Isn’t it?
And by interesting I don’t mean its history, its origins, or even the state of photography today (among countless other avenues of the craft).
Those are undoubtedly all interesting aspects to delve into.
But no.
What I would like to explore is this:
Regardless of what photographic tool we use, we still have to compositionally arrange elements into the same (or similar) rectangular / square frame.
Take the opening image above, shot on my iPhone ☝🏽.
Would I have composed it differently if I was shooting it on my bulky full frame Nikon D810 DSLR?
No.
Although, I may not have bothered making the image at all due to the effort of having to take out the D810 vs the iPhone.
Regardless of which of the two I would - or would not - have used, though, both would have given me the same field of view (i.e. a rectangle) in which to compose my image.
This brings us to - what is for me - the far more interesting question to ask:
What is our motivation behind making a specific image?
Rather than “What gear did you use?”, I find asking “What motivated you to make that image?” yields a far more valuable (and yes, interesting) answer.
Let’s start with me.
Why did I make the opening image above of the chairs on the beach in Italy?
There are a few reasons:
I found the patterns of the chairs / umbrellas visually interesting.
Their blue colours compliment those of the blue sky, as well as the blue/green hues of the ocean.
Compositionally, the way the beach leads the eye to the left of frame, where the hill takes over and leads the eye to the right, along the oceanic horizon and back down to the beach (restarting the journey once more), makes for a dynamic image to view.
I wanted to document where we were on family holiday.
In short: I felt moved enough in that moment to make that image.
And that says something, because you have to feel really “moved” with a toddler hanging off one arm and beach day paraphernalia off the other.
But I digress.
Would someone else have felt similarly inspired to make that image?
Maybe yes.
Maybe no.
The point is this: each person is different, with a unique set of experiences, and will make unique images when following their inner inspiration.
And yet, we wall have to arrange elements in the same rectangular frame!
This is fascinating to me.
It also opens the door for much more in depth discussions around the “Why?” behind images and image making, which is what I find so - you guessed it - interesting.
Which then begs the question:
What makes a good photographer?
Is it the gear, or the ability to arrange things around in a rectangular box?
But enough for now!
I think we’ll leave that for another edition of Alpine Dispatches 🤠.
Let me leave you with some more images of a little coastal Italian village:
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Simply hit reply and let me know.
—
Until next time.
Cornelius
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