Skip to main content

The making of a photograph

A porter reaches back to help another as they struggle to carry their burdens up into the city, Istanbul, Turkey.
It strikes me that photo enthusiasts are often more interested in the equipment used to take a photograph and the settings as if somehow that knowledge will help them create images like the ones they admire.

On the other hand art critics look at images as the starting point for an interpretation. They often give images a meaning far beyond what was in the photographers mind at the time of making the image.

Professional photographers on the other hand look at images and think about how they would have tackled the same situation to get the shot. They are less concerned with the equipment or the interpretation and more interested in the practical decision making involved and the point of view, both physical and interpretive, of the photographer.

Over the years the image above has become quite symbolic to me. Each man carries a burden through life and sometimes everyone needs a little help to take the next step. My understanding of the image I shot on that day has evolved. Here's how the actual moment of capture happened...

One day when I was a young photojournalist student, I was walking near the harbour in Istanbul when I saw a row of men with heavy barrels on their backs. They were crossing the road and as each man crossed the one in front turned around to help the man behind him up onto the pavement. It immediately struck me as an iconic and symbolic moment.

I had my SLR, loaded with Ilford HP 5 film, hence the grainy print, and an 80-200mm lens. I was a long way off and had to run flat out to get close enough for a shot at 200mm. By the time I was in range I could only manage to shoot one frame of the last two men in the row. Weeks later when I got home and developed the negative I realised I'd captured something special. The image has been in my portfolio ever since and reaction from viewers has always been good. Generally people 'get it'.

The thing that interests me now though is that over time the power and meaning of the image has grown.

More soon...
Paul
www.indigo2photography.co.uk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overcoming creative block and self doubt

Every photographer, for that matter every creative, I've ever met comes to a point when they're not happy with the work they're producing. The pendulum between creative highs and dry spells swings continuously. For some the cycle is long and the bouts are quite mild for others the feeling of doubt about their work can be a crushing experience which returns all to frequently. It's actually quite healthy to have these periods of doubt because it can often be the beginning of something new and interesting which takes you further than you thought possible. Creatives in the commercial world have to always perform and although they may agree looking back that they've had a few patches where their work was less good, they always seem to bounce back. A very few creative geniuses deliver such high quality work that their poorest attempts still surpass the rest of us. But I have never heard of anyone, from tortured soul of Van Gogh to the supreme showman and genius, Salvador ...
22 comments
Read more

What You Photograph Reveals How You Think

  Photography is often described as a way of seeing. Less often do we talk about it as a way of thinking. What you choose to photograph, and just as importantly what you ignore, quietly mirrors how your mind works. Some photographers are drawn to faces, micro-expressions, emotional spikes. Others chase atmosphere, light, mood. Then there are those who gravitate towards structure, systems, order, the invisible logic holding a scene together. None of this is accidental. The camera becomes a sorting tool. It reveals what your brain prioritises. Where others see chaos, you might see alignment. Where some look for drama, you look for balance. Geometry, repetition, flow, layers, these aren’t just visual preferences, they’re cognitive ones. Strong graphic images tend to come from people who think spatially. Who notice how things relate before they notice what they mean. Lines before labels. Structure before story. And yet, the best images rarely stop there. They gain depth when human pres...
1 comment
Read more

Is professional photography still a viable career?

I am not against amateurs and semi-professionals selling their photography. It's a great way to earn some extra cash. However I am concerned about the level of high quality published work and the standards that clients and the public accept these days. It seems that just about everyone is a photographer. The line between amateur enthusiast and professional is fuzzy to say the least. Photography enthusiasts are selling their images through stock libraries and microstock websites, directly to magazines or through their own and third party sites. They're accepting commissions to shoot weddings, being hired to shoot for magazines and selling fine art prints from their websites. They're teaching photography on the weekend and guiding photographic holidays and safaris. Photography became accessible to the masses with the first non-expert cameras and the famous Kodak slogan"You press the button, we do the rest." The digital camera age has taken the whole thing to a ne...
14 comments
Read more