LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process Brooks Jensen

The common perception of a photograph is that it is a fact. Even a fanciful, imagine-based photograph is a statement of how the photographer sees the world. But what doors to creativity are opened if we change that perspective and think of a photograph (or a project) as a proposal to consider? What if your photograph says, "Here's a question" rather than "Here's a truth"?

When you decide you want to make a photograph of this particular thing, why is that thing chosen over all others? What is it in that thing that makes it more photogenic than all others? I've thought about this a great deal lately and I'm not sure I have the answer. I do, however, think I have one answer: Idealism. So much of photography as it is practiced is the pursuit of the ideal.

Here is a slick focusing technique I never thought of, but it works. It replaces the half-press and hold, then compose technique. It's much more intuitive in my brain than back button focusing. It uses "focus tracking" or something I like to call "sticky focus." You really should try this one.

In my youth, I thought the magic was to achieve a maximum black. It took me several years to learn that the magic is not in maximum black but rather in beautiful gray tones and chords of tones that please the eye. Increasing contrast and overprinting the blacks is rarely the answer. My apologies to Bill Brandt.

Once Stieglitz decided that photography was best consumed as art on the wall, like painting, he set in motion the pursuit of large prints. If it weren't for our predisposition to exhibit photographs on the wall, I wonder if there would ever have been a push for larger and larger prints. And if we collectively did not think of photography as something destined for the wall, I wonder what methodology/medium would dominate the sharing of photographs?

All media include an element of narcissism. With every photograph we make, we are essentially competing for attention. Each photograph screams, "Look at me!" This intense competition for eyeballs leads to a secondary phenomenon I think of as "the advertising promise." "Come look at me and you will be rewarded with this goody." The competition for eyeballs is so fierce that we now are overwhelmed with advertising promises way out of proportion to actual content.