LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Ignorance may be bliss, but it's not the best path to mastery. The problem with something like photography that requires skill and artistic sensibilities is that we may be blinded by what we don't know.

Styles of photography communicate on a non-verbal level just like styles of typography do. The wrong typeface can communicate the wrong message - and so can the wrong style of photographic presentation.

Two aspects of photography continually do battle as I think about what photography is. Is photography all about the artifact? Think prints, folios, books, etc. Or, is photography more about the content? That is to say, is it more about the ideas and emotions that are embedded and evoked from the image?

Sometimes we photograph to show the world what we see. Sometimes we photograph to show the world what we are thinking - even if it has nothing to do with what's in front of the camera.

With each interview we do for LensWork Extended, after the formal conversation is completed, we often chat for a few more minutes in a relaxed "winding down." We post some of these for members of LensWork Online in a section we call After the Interview. Here's a short excerpt from my recent interview with Cole Thompson.

Several times a week I have a conversation with some photographer who wants to do a book. My first response is to ask them why.

When your artmaking goes beyond making mere pretty pictures and becomes a way for you to express ideas, it becomes important to think about how you will connect your photography to those ideas. Will you make photographs that communicate ideas, or make photographs that are the result of ideas?

Photographers can take inspiration from all kinds of sources and people. In this short series, we look at a few individuals from other disciplines whom I've found inspiring in my photography. In this podcast, I discuss Anthony Trollope and TV personality Steve Allen.

Photographers can take inspiration from all kinds of sources and people. In this short series, we look at a few individuals from other disciplines who I've found inspiring in my photography. In this podcast, I discuss Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell.

Photographers can take inspiration from all kinds of sources and people. In this short series, we look at a few individuals from other disciplines whom I've found inspiring in my photography. In this podcast, I discuss novelist and short story writer Max Brand.

Photographers can take inspiration from all kinds of sources and people. In this short series, we look at a few individuals from other disciplines whom I've found inspiring in my photography. In this podcast, I discuss Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin fame) and Joseph Conrad (author, novelist).

The iPad presents us with such a wonderful opportunity for developing a broader audience for our photography - assuming we can recognize the challenge we have from our true competition.

Are you serious about your photography? By what criteria are photographers judged as being serious or not? Is equipment a valid way to assess someone's seriousness about photography?

At its core, photography is about ... well, that's the question. A review of website popularity by looking at Alexa ratings is not a particularly encouraging indication.

Where do we find inspiration for our next project? In my experience, it comes invariably from an unexpected source.