Photography can be simple or very complex. It’s similar to writing. It’s easy to write a throw away note, but difficult to write a story. Read on to discover how thinking differently about photography can help you to create better photos and make more sense of the world around you.
Where to start with photography
It can be tricky to find a way into something that is everything and everywhere, and all at once! When swimming in a sea of photography it is always not easy to make sense of it. Like a fish trying to understand the water that surrounds it – where to look first?
“Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.”
Martin Parr
Photography genres
Genres are a way of labelling different styles of photography. They give a convenient way of explaining ‘what type of photography do you do?‘. Or what kind of photograph viewers are interested in seeing. They help describe the visual in words. Some photographers shun genres because they don’t want to be boxed in. Genres can and do encourage rules-based thinking within them – what fits and what doesn’t. The rules become more important than the images.
Therefore, treat genre as a rough guide to what you might see. Not something to impose rigid rules on your photography. Exploring them yourself is a good way to understand them – look at the work of photographers in a genre.
Photographers
Learning from photography masters is a great way to understand photography – for free and easy access spend some time at the university of Youtube, watching documentaries on photographers. Not the technical, ‘how to’ videos but the ones where photographers are talking about their work and the stories they share with their images. Begin with the whys of photography and pick up the technical skills you need, if and only you need them.
Galleries, museums and exhibitions
Seeing professionally curated exhibitions can make a great day out as well as a fantastic learning experience. If you’re only used to seeing photos on screen or in books, it will change your thinking. Seeing them printed with high quality inks, on fine papers bring a different dimension to the experience of seeing. Well curated exhibitions also provide revealing information about the photographer and the context for the work. Image shows visitors to an exhibition of Gillian Wearing’s Family Stories in Copenhagen.
Photography exhibitions are not always as well publicised as other events with bigger advertising budgets. You need to connect with venues near youto make sure you don’t miss out. Also, check anywhere you are visiting or holidaying.
Finally, you will need to decide how you will backup your digital memories – all hard drives will eventually fail. Avoid loosing the irreplaceable!
Photography technique
As with technique in all things creative, only learn techniques that you will use in making photos. Don’t use time learning and practicing techniques that you’ll never apply. This is particularly true of the digital darkroom and sophisticated tools like Photoshop – just because it is possible to do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
Create – one click at a time
This article has taken some thinking about – things I wish I knew when I first started making photographs. It’s a framework that would have helped me to sort my head out quicker in a vast field where it’s impossible for anyone to know everything.
We hope you found it useful and please comment with your own thoughts. Do also take a look at our linked articles to explore deeper and please consider taking a membership with us – they start from free and include a monthly newsletter.
