Looking For My Artistic Vision
This is kind of a chicken and egg story. What comes first, a collection of connected photos that perhaps leads to the building of artistic vision or the artistic vision that provides the connection in a collection of photos? For me, and I would guess a lot of amateur photographers, my collections to date are really quite random and probably more or less devoid of artistic vision. Consider my collection called, “Upside-down Smiles”. Over time, for example, I noticed a relatively common facial expression I would catch in street photography. It was a familiar expression. I had seen it in my father’s face many times. I do not know exactly what that expression signifies, except that is is not joy or happiness. If I see such an expression, I take a picture of it.
Dad. Photographer unknown.
Another random collection that I have is called “The Life of a Woman”. Certainly, I was conscious that I was drawn to taking pictures of women as they go about their lives. However, I did not do much introspection into the whys and wherefores of what it exactly it was that drew me.
Lately, I have been trying to do a little better. I think a lot about how well my photographs convey a message to my viewers. I am still assembling collections of connected photos that I have taken in the past, but now I am interested in photos that have a specific message that I want to portray. Thus, my collection, “The Life of a Woman,” has been refined to the collection, “This Could Have Been Me.” I can see myself in others and I want to tell my story through them.
Let’s see how I am doing. I am going to present 5 images, one after another. I will then comment about why the picture is in the collection, “This Could Have Been Me.” For those of you who know me, I hope you recognize me, or a least a facet of me, in some of the pictures. For those of you who do not know me, I hope the pictures will be worth a thousand words.
Woman crossing a street.
Woman at a ticket booth.
Protective woman.
Woman checking schedules.
Woman who does not give up.
Woman crossing a street.
It is said that our best and worst qualities are one in the same. You can absolutely count on me to be going in a direction different from the crowd. I would have to say that quality has led to both my greatest successes and most disappointing defeats.
Woman at the ticket booth.
It does not take much to utterly delight me. I seek out such experiences, large and small.
Protective woman.
I do not know if that is my body language, but I do know that I sometimes feel the way that I read that body language.
Woman checking schedules.
Yes. I check and re-check.
Woman who does not give up.
Never say die.
I do not think artistic vision is an “after the fact” activity. In photography, artistic vision is at work when you understand why you are taking the picture and what message you hope to convey. I hope that looking back over my work can help me move forward so that I can better present the world as I see it.