You as a photographic artist
We all want to learn how to take pictures, lots of new and different techniques, talk camera gear etc. But first, let’s have a look and dismiss some of the preconceived ideas of being an artist. We are human beings and we function in a world that isn’t all that friendly. We have to cope with people telling us our images aren’t all that good, with rejection and criticism. We need to learn how to survive in this world and stand up and believe in our own creative vision. We are unique and we need to look at what makes up that and how do we stand out from the others. We need to find our own voice.
The world we live in is a dog eat dog environment and as an artist, the level of rejection moves to a whole new level. The most important thing we should never forget is that we are all human and we all suffer from the same things. We all want to be successful photographers and take fabulous photographs and make a living from being creative and that’s the mindset many of us start with. There are many more aspects to being successful though and taking pictures is just one of them. One question to ask yourself is where do you want to end up what is your goal. What does success spell out to you what is the end result? Another question is what is it that keeps people from being successful, why do some people succeed and some fail. Is it education, talent or do they have better equipment is it religion race or even gender? The one thing you need to believe in is you if you have a dream to be a successful artist you and you alone can achieve that.
Discovering and accepting who we are and what our strengths and weaknesses are is the first step. Once we know what these are we can learn how to use them, adapt them and improve them but overcoming and understanding them is the first step.
Learning the basics first and walking before you can run will always stand you in good stead. The photographic processes we learn early on will have a drastic effect on the outcome of our work. I started with film and processing black and white images in a dark room. This basic understanding now plays a significant part in my images. A very high percentage of photographic learning is technical. Yes, we have to understand the basics of photography and how to create an image but we have to understand and ask which is the most important, the technical process or the creative process. You can work out for yourself the percentage balance you want in your work.
Some photographers are obsessed with equipment and all the latest cameras, lens and flash units etc. This can be very overwhelming to a more creative-based photographer who might be more about narrative, colour, composition etc. The skill is for a technical photographer to learn to be more creative and a creative photographer to learn to be more technical. Whichever side of the fence you sit on try learning to be more on the other. One thing that we all have in us is the desire to create the desire to be creative, do not be limited by the technical restraints of equipment and techniques.
You are an artist with a set of tools, cameras and editing programs are your tools. Think like an artist and use them.
Start building your creative process, a solid foundation is a perfect start. A photograph these days is now more of an illusion than a reality at best it is reality as an illusion. Getting a camera to capture reality at one hundred per cent is impossible, they can get close but not one hundred per cent. Why is this important, because as an artist and you decide to be creative, your images will be an expression of your creative vision. You can decide how much reality you want to include, how much of an illusionist you want to be. You can draw people into your world, your world of make-believe for a want of a better way to describe it. The reason for this statement is because we can’t create a true reality with photography. Embrace the role of being an artist with the power to create and make an emotional connection with your viewer.
The moment you start with a concept of an idea to the moment you hang a photograph on a wall, you have to make a series of creative choices, and these choices are the ones only you can make.
The word artist how do we define it. As a creative person, you have a uniqueness about you. From the moment you are born you have shaped yourself into who you are today and all of your experiences in life have added to this. As a creative person, you have a desire to get this out and hang it on a wall. If you have a passion to create by definition you are an artist. An artist is not defined by the final product or how well that product is received but by the passion to create. Art is not just for the select few not everyone will like your work you have to accept this but you are still the person creating art. An artist should be allowed to explore without boundaries and you might wonder why then do we try and place boundaries around artists and ourselves. You and your vision will be your brand and its why painters and photographers are recognisable. The moment you let go of the perception you are a photographer and class yourself as an artist you will be able to let your creativity go to a whole new level. People will hire you because of who you are, people will buy your work because it is by you. People will not want work that looks like yours people will want the real thing and that’s because it’s your art.
You have something to offer that is one of a kind, there may be many clones of you but there will only ever be the one you. Many famous photographers were successful because they stuck at one thing. They had a unique talent and became a master of it. Stand out from the crowd, copy and you will blend into the masses.
The creative process you have has everything to do with your feelings and emotions and intuitive approach, don’t ever worry about this as your intuition will never lead you astray. Your intuition is you, it will make all the creative choices you have to make and will be the process of your creativity. Your camera will never make a creative decision, the mind makes all the creative decisions. If you what to do it do it, don’t listen to what others think. Evaluate what you the artist likes if you don’t like it change it.
If you’re taking a portrait shot and when it comes to setting up the lights, how do you know if you have got it right? When you make a creative decision like this and set them up it’s your intuition telling you it is right. This uniqueness can be a scary place though as it opens you up for criticism. This is where it can get hard, this is what people want to avoid, rejection, being told it’s wrong, what were you thinking. You have to understand that there will always be a group of people that will criticise everything you do. There will be a group of people that love what you do and also a group of people and don’t care what you do. You can’t please everyone so don’t even try to. Trust yourself and don’t let it interfere with your creative process.
As an example the correct exposure can only be determined by you, yes it can be measured using a histogram but the real correct exposure has to be the decision of you the artist. This is where the previous statement comes in about the technical side and the creative side of photography. If you blow out your highlights technically the image is flawed. Creatively it could be exactly as you wanted it. Once you know the rules you can go and break them. You have a creative voice and it’s yours to use.
Where do you make a start? You may try lots of different genres of photography at first, most of us do. You can’t be a landscape photographer if you don’t like getting up in the morning, you can’t be a portrait photographer if you don’t like people. What you need to do is decide what it is that you love to photograph. The reason you need to make this choice is that you are going to have to put a tremendous amount of time and effort into this. You are going to spend hours and hours practising, learning, reading and you also need to research all the current tools and techniques the things people are using and doing now. Take all these and experiment with them, this will make you current and not look dated. You then need to learn to add something new something no one else is doing this will force you to look and try harder. This will not be easy as the artistic photography world is always moving forward and fast. You also need to be working at the highest standard don’t ever settle for average.
Working on a series is a great way to build a body of work. This is also a great way to say this is who I am this is my vision. It is not a question of just shooting ten to twenty images this is about shooting hundreds of images. You need to be the name that is stamped on that style and look, the name that people mention when they see it. Doing this will also make you proficient in that style, you will know it inside out and it will become second nature to you. This will become your brand.
When you create a signature brand in photography it’s very much like some of the brands we are very familiar with in our daily lives the things we see around our houses. They are instantly recognisable by the look of the packet and the product. A brand is a link between two identities the product and the name. Photography is just the same the link between the look of an image and the name. When someone says they have seen your work and say they can tell it is yours before they see the name, that is your brand. There are more followers than leaders in the photography world and being a leader is hard but it is an exciting place to be.