This is what I waned to see
We recently went to the Van Gogh exhibit here in Houston, and there were several of his quotes written on the walls. One, in particular, struck me as the way I not only teach but the way I personally approach photography.
In my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place, and in my online classes with the BPSOP, I encourage my students to realize that we’re artists. We have chosen the camera as our medium. A camera on a tripod is just the same as a blank canvas on an easel.
My personal approach is that I rarely see things as they are, rather as I’d like them to be. I see things in my mind, and if I can see them there, I can usually create them in the camera.
Van Gogh said, “I dream of painting, and then I paint my dreams”. I’ll walk up to some location/photo op and not necessarily see what’s there. In other words, based on my thought process, I have no problem moving things around in my composition to see what I want. Of course, this is predicated on whatever permissions I need to get ahead of time. If I need another one of those chairs that will introduce another shape or color, then I’ll move it. Conversely, if I need to simplify my composition, then I’ll take one out.
Photography, unlike painting, is the Art of Subtraction. When you use a brush on a blank canvas, you add subject matter until you get a finished work of art. In photography, you take away subject matter until you arrive at a finished work of art.
In my fifty-two-year-plus career, there have been many times when I was about to start on a project or leave for a destination I had pre-scouted before the start of my workshop, and the night before I dreamed of how I wanted to arrange my composition.
So, my fellow photographers, think about the artist inside you. Don’t just go around photographing what you only see, but also what you’d like to see. Don’t follow the path well-traveled, start a new one and be the first one to go down it. When you do, think about coloring outside the lines.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out any workshops I may have coming up. Come shoot with me sometime.
https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/
JoeB
