"I don't have anything to say in any picture. My only interest in photography is to see what something looks like as a photograph. I have no preconceptions."
Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)
For me, this quote by Garry Winogrand really encompasses a good deal of both the excitement and the frustration of photographing. It perfectly expresses to me, in words, the fact that the camera sees things differently than our eyes do.
At times, it can be very frustrating when I am excited about a scene at the time the shutter clicked, thinking that I had captured something special, only to find that the final image leaves me uninspired. Alternatively, how delightful it can be when I first see an image I took and it just hits the right way emotionally, perhaps in a way that I hadn't expected.
I know that there are many interpretations of the meaning behind this quote, but for me the idea that most hits home is the uncertainty of predicting how something will look in a photo. I think Mr. Winogrand expressed this just perfectly. Many times the mundane will look beautiful, and, after all, isn't the ability to make that happen the mark of a great photographer?
3 comments:
Great quote. In some ways, it represents some of the pressures on a photographer to 'make a statement' or to 'tell a story' with every image. Sometimes there just isn't some grand statement to be had.
I believe any form of art is some kind of communication.
Some great photographers manage to take photograph that "tells something", while others is just simply beautiful and make people pause by the sight of it.
I believe, if there is no other thing that the photographer want to communicate, then probably the message is how beautiful is the scene/subject is.
Some great writers can write great stories that communicate a strong message, while other great writers simply just write great stories. Both is possible, IMO.
I'm hoping for some of the "delightful" type this morning as I'm preparing to view the images I captured during the past few days. And, yes, let's hear it for the beauty of the mundane.
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