LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2720 with Brooks Jensen

Purposely Off

Awhile back, I made a landscape image in which I desaturated the naturally bright blue sky to an emotionally dark steel blue/gray. No sky ever looked that way in real life. I loved it in spite of the obvious fact that it wasn't true to human vision. Curiously enough, because it was so clearly an aesthetic choice, people seemed to be willing to accept it as an artistic expression. I guess the lesson is, if you are going to alter reality, do it enough so that it's evident you've done it on purpose. Viewers may not like it, but at least they won't think it is an incompetent mistake.

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Here's a Thought… #2719 with Brooks Jensen

Blade Runner and Puccini's Butterfly

Do you ever go back and revise a previously finished image or project? I don't. Maybe I should. Sometimes, great artists do. For example, there are five different versions of Blade Runner, one of my favorite movies. Puccini made several substantial revisions of his opera, Madame Butterfly. Ansel Adams made a dozen or so different versions of Monolith, Face of Halfdome. If such great artists believe they can improve their previous work, why would we think we can't?

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Here's a Thought… #2718 with Brooks Jensen

Accessory Fever

I cringe when I think about all the money I've spent on accessories that sounded like a great solution, then used only a time or two. Or, maybe never. I have a closet full of them. Why is it that the solution to better pictures always seems to rely on some new piece of gear? I suppose it's just easier to blame stuff (or the lack of stuff) than it is to look inward and frankly see our own limitations. What a relief it is to blame our failures on anything but ourselves!

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Here's a Thought… #2717 with Brooks Jensen

Too Many Notes, Words, Images

I've often said that this is the best time in the history of photography to be a photographer. There is one sense in which this is clearly not true: audience attention spans. The instantaneous mindset of making photographs is leaking into the way we look at photographs — instantaneously. Social media are training all of us to think a glimpse is sufficient.

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Here's a Thought… #2716 with Brooks Jensen

Fun Is a Medicine

I assume that all of you listening to these commentaries take your photography pretty seriously. You want your photographs to be meaningful, lovely, treasured, valuable. We approach our image making with a serious mindset. Must we? What about fun? Silly? Playful? Not all of our work needs to be momentous. Make something small, fun, light-hearted that you can give away just because it makes everyone smile. Strangely enough, doing so can make your serious work more meaningful.

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