If I followed the rules, I wouldn’t have taken this
One of my all time favorite photographers was W. Eugene Smith. I have several of his books (Minimata being the most powerful) and love going back and look at his work.
He once said in an interview, “I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?”. This quote comes to mind as much as any in my category My Favorite Quotes. Why, you might ask?
I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct workshops all around the planet. The reason why I think about this quote is because I’m constantly asked if I follow any rules pertaining to how I go about deciding on how I compose my final composition.
At that point I will invariably quote Eugene Smith. I also didn’t write these so called rules, that were written merely to take us down a one way path to mediocrity; so why should I also follow them?
A lot of people that have recently fallen in love with photography, seek out advice from others. I can understand since they are new and want to take the best photos they can. The problem is that they will listen to anyone and take what they hear as gospel; after all, they must know more since they are already photographers and have really nice cameras; don’t be fooled by that…it’s the ten inches behind the camera that really counts.
Here’s where I stand: I’m not going to follow rules that I didn’t write and especially ones that I don’t believe in; as long as the rules aren’t actually laws that could eventually wind up being a bad decision!!
🙂
I have one rule as it applies to my photography. I never crop my photos, and haven’t for the fifty years that I’ve been shooting profssionally.
So, my fellow photographers, while it’s important to have personal rules when it comes to your new found love, whatever you do don’t listed to those that think it’s important to follow rules just because someone, somewhere, wrote them.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
