NikonGear'23
Gear Talk => Other => Topic started by: atpaula on June 24, 2019, 17:06:49
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To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
Elliott Erwitt
You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.
Joan Miró
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I concur with both, esp. the first one. Well obliged too, as I'm doing the same trips over and over again...
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To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
Elliott Erwitt
You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.
Joan Miró
Both very good statements about photography. Elliot Erwitt is one of my favorite photographers as well.
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Thanks for sharing these quotes
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Wise comments.
I have often wondered whether the "Art of Observation" is teachable; or whether some people are fortunate to have been born with that latent ability and others, very sadly, have not?
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Wise comments.
I have often wondered whether the "Art of Observation" is teachable; or whether some people are fortunate to have been born with that latent ability and others, very sadly, have not?
You're not alone in those thoughts, Ann.
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My son has always had a striking ability to notice things that would not attract attention of other people, and that's not only my (proud father's) observation. He also happens to be a "natural photographer".
Now that does not mean that "art of observation" cannot be acquired by training and teaching.
I have a good book by Willy Ronis, about six or seven fundamental attitudes that lead to interesting shots, with assorted examples from his works. Not gear, not techniques, but attitudes or mindsets. There are other books dealing with that subject, but less systematically.
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Thanks Aguinaldo, I also concur with both. Still missing the emotional part of all of it.
Airy, do you mind to share the name of the book?
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I have a good book by Willy Ronis, about six or seven fundamental attitudes that lead to interesting shots, with assorted examples from his works. Not gear, not techniques, but attitudes or mindsets. There are other books dealing with that subject, but less systematically.
Would you remember the title of the book?
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Thank you for the reminder, Aguinaldo. These can be true for most kinds of art.
I have often wondered whether the "Art of Observation" is teachable; or whether some people are fortunate to have been born with that latent ability and others, very sadly, have not?
I think it is not "teachable", but it could be "found out" by a person of similar talent and "brushed up" by being exposed to and/or inspired by fine art works.
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"Found out" and "brushed up" are interesting concepts here. I do agree.
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The book by Ronis:
https://www.amazon.fr/Derri%C3%A8re-lobjectif-Willy-Ronis-Photos/dp/2842303709/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
I did not find any EN version on amazon, but there seems to be an Italian one (title : Le regole del caso)
The French title ("behind the lens...") compounds with the author's name ("... of/by Willy Ronis"; does not work in EN, but in French, of (posessor) = by (author of book) = "de") because the author's mindset is in the focus, so to say.
There are at least three other books with the same title but the photographer's name, all being co-authored, I think, with a certain Boni. I happened to find Ronis' one, and since he was (not only) a "street shooter", it fits well with the subject of this thread.
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"Found out" and "brushed up" are interesting concepts here. I do agree.
I guiess you are doing the same thing as dance teacher?
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Wise comments.
I have often wondered whether the "Art of Observation" is teachable; or whether some people are fortunate to have been born with that latent ability and others, very sadly, have not?
I believe most child have it, unless they are cocooned in a strict environment. Most loose it in teenage years because of trying to be adults... As a teacher of Architecture, it's part of my job to get them back to that state (mostly by hand drawing but photography can help too, as reading ! ).
Many of my students (circa 24 years old) tell me that now they are themselves surprised of "seeing" so many details while walking their usual trip to our school.
"Seeing" is one thing, "framing" (or communicating the observation) is another. The two must be learnt at the same length of time !
I, usually, ask them to re-read "The little Prince" by Saint Exupéry, then to apply it to their trip and draw the results... 8) It's not very different of a "story-board" in which the said details would appear as a "key" to the story :o
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Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince
Edit The author Antoine Saint-Exupéry was a man of many many parts - aviator, author, writer, poet, war hero, and aristocrat. He was reputedly quite mathematically gifted and was an architecure student. Clearly a person who could see and not just look.
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I guiess you are doing the same thing as dance teacher?
Yes, in a sense, but dance have a peculiarity. As in photography you can learn proper thecnique with method, patience and practice; the talent part of it, to be "brushed up" or "find out" needs a comparable informations, practice, exposure, practice, intuition, practice, etc...and a good deal of natural talent, but
In dance your gear is you -yes your body- it can not be bought, rent or changed, only worked upon. It is linked to your personality, mood, psyque It makes the aritstic connection very personal and almost impossible to lie. That is the nature of the body language and everyone understands it in a deep emotional and instintive level. That´s, I think, the main difference.
As a teacher, I´m trying to do facilitate the first in orther to bring out the later, yes.
I hope this makes sense in english and answer somehow your question?
Thanks Akira. Questions are difficult to come by.
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Wonderful discussion.
Two quotes from a photographer that has had a large influence on my work.
“One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” – Minor White
“…innocence of eye has a quality of its own.
It means to see as a child sees, with freshness and acknowledgment of the wonder; it also means to see as an adult sees who has gone full circle and once again sees as a child – with freshness and an even deeper sense of wonder.” – Minor White
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Yes, in a sense, but dance have a peculiarity. As in photography you can learn proper thecnique with method, patience and practice; the talent part of it, to be "brushed up" or "find out" needs a comparable informations, practice, exposure, practice, intuition, practice, etc...and a good deal of natural talent, but
In dance your gear is you -yes your body- it can not be bought, rent or changed, only worked upon. It is linked to your personality, mood, psyque It makes the aritstic connection very personal and almost impossible to lie. That is the nature of the body language and everyone understands it in a deep emotional and instintive level. That´s, I think, the main difference.
As a teacher, I´m trying to do facilitate the first in orther to bring out the later, yes.
I hope this makes sense in english and answer somehow your question?
Thanks Akira. Questions are difficult to come by.
Paco, thank you for taking time to answer my question that seemed casual but was actually very complicated to answer.
But your effort is surely well paid off here. That makes perfect sense.
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I believe most child have it, unless they are cocooned in a strict environment. Most loose it in teenage years because of trying to be adults... As a teacher of Architecture, it's part of my job to get them back to that state (mostly by hand drawing but photography can help too, as reading ! ).
Many of my students (circa 24 years old) tell me that now they are themselves surprised of "seeing" so many details while walking their usual trip to our school.
"Seeing" is one thing, "framing" (or communicating the observation) is another. The two must be learnt at the same length of time !
I, usually, ask them to re-read "The little Prince" by Saint Exupéry, then to apply it to their trip and draw the results... 8) It's not very different of a "story-board" in which the said details would appear as a "key" to the story :o
Jacques,
As an architect I’m always looking at things in as many different ways as I can, climbing and bending, looking up, down and backward. But I’m not sure if that is because I chose architecture or architecture chose me. In architecture school and in practice I’ve met many architects who only look straight ahead.
Anyway, I’m glad to have cameras which can help share what I’ve seen, or share what I’ve created from what I’ve seen. Like you I find some purpose in that sort of sharing.
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Jacques,
As an architect I’m always looking at things in as many different ways as I can, climbing and bending, looking up, down and backward. But I’m not sure if that is because I chose architecture or architecture chose me. In architecture school and in practice I’ve met many architects who only look straight ahead.
Anyway, I’m glad to have cameras which can help share what I’ve seen, or share what I’ve created from what I’ve seen. Like you I find some purpose in that sort of sharing.
We also have those sort of architects who believe that churning full ahead will get them to fame... And, alas, it happens, as we live in a "star system"! Though my teaching of all those small tidbits, or how many details you can find in a few square meters of street, how it holds up in ones memory ( à la Gordon Cullen ), then, how it provides you with "depth of field", allowing each user/viewer to find it's own place in the "frame" ! Then you add a bit of "speed" (Paul Virilio) and a sensibility to exposure (ASA/ISO aka weather or crowd or even local culture) and you have the recipe for a good project (or a great picture ;))!
Like Airy who manages to do his thousand and one trips with each time a different story, or Akira who plays between the inanimate and the living with subtlety, most of us try to be like the pilot stranded in the desert in "The little Prince", we stop defining the sheep precisely and put it in a crate (with holes in it so it can breathe), so that all can have the sheep they dream of... 8)
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nicely put
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Apparently Jacques concluded the discussion nicely. :)