For the 'makers'...

[batwister]

In trying to get this age old and somewhat petty point across to somebody, I had no choice but to open Photoshop and make use of the popular meme.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TF_3w2ed3Tc/T_3GAW0B6DI/AAAAAAAAANE/OtB2A7_aDmE/s1600/ANSELMEME.jpg

 

[E. von Hoegh]

In trying to get this age old and somewhat petty point across to somebody, I had no choice but to open Photoshop and make use of the popular meme.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TF_3w2ed3Tc/T_3GAW0B6DI/AAAAAAAAANE/OtB2A7_aDmE/s1600/ANSELMEME.jpg

Good one. But there are many who will never "get' that point. And there will always be others who think they can simply buy what is good - however their idea of "good" is usually along the lines of Lik and Gursky.

 

[batwister]

It's a difficult thing. I try not to make a simplistic argument that the 'making' happens in the darkroom, but that it's more a state of mind while actually out with a camera. A thoughtful process of gazing and constructing the image. If you're a street photographer of course, it's not so much the 'making' as a purity of seeing and intuition - we're quicker to label this kind of approach 'genius' I think. Bresson is the genius, whereas Ansel is perhaps more of a grafter in people's eyes, then somebody like Harry Callahan is somewhere in between - the perfect photographer in my mind for that reason. He seemed to occupy dead center and avoided any kind of genre stamp, maybe because he did everything!

 

[batwister]

I definitely see Gursky as a maker, but perhaps to his own detriment? Or the viewer's at least.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Ansel was a consummate technician, and a master of pre-visualisation. His books and a Deardorff V8 taught me to "see" the final print before I ever make an exposure, and the experience gained with the big cameras has improved my photography immeasurably, regardless of the format I am using. Thanks also to Edward Weston for teaching me about form, lighting, and texture.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

I definitely see Gursky as a maker, but perhaps to his own detriment? Or the viewer's at least.

Gursky makes a scene into something less than it was.

 

[batwister]

the experience gained with the big cameras has improved my photography immeasurably, regardless of the format I am using.

That's interesting to me, shooting medium format, but being aware of the large format 'seers' (what a horrible word, "see-urrs") and how they talk about the world upside down forcing them to have a heightened awareness of form. With the current amateur sensibility of the formal snapshot in contemporary large format work, I wonder where this got lost? Then again Callahan was perhaps the earliest proponent of the artful snapshot, shooting 5x4, and nobody can deny the beauty and gracefulness of his images.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

That's interesting to me, shooting medium format, but being aware of the large format 'seers' (what a horrible word, "see-urrs") and how they talk about the world upside down forcing them to have a heightened awareness of form. With the current amateur sensibility of the formal snapshot in contemporary large format work, I wonder where this got lost? Then again Callahan was perhaps the earliest proponent of the artful snapshot, shooting 5x4, and nobody can deny their beauty and gracefulness.

After a while you don't notice it being upside-down. For me the awareness of form came from paying attention to form; I wonder what some of those seers are thinking.

I've used my Linhof ST IV handheld with the wire finder, it's an interesting way to work. Sort of, "deliberate snap-shooting".

 

[batwister]

For me the awareness of form came from paying attention to form; I wonder what some of those seers are thinking.

There's certainly a heritage of image making linked with formats, which may have a consequence on the images we make ourselves? I'm not sure we can switch off to that, seeing as we're always conscious of the 'tool' we use as photographers and what can and has been done with our particular tool. I make a different kind of image on the Hasselblad than with smaller formats for instance and I don't think it's just about the square. Upon buying the camera, I began to look at Hasselblad photographers and still do. There definitely seems to be a culture connected to cameras in this way, that may even have a bearing on our stylistic and subjective concerns. Every photographer's goal is surely to develop their own concerns, but I think these are the formative experiences that guide our developing eye and craft.

 

[blansky]

I think we can over think the "taking" vs "making" concept.

To me a photograph is simply a snapshot or it isn't. Meaning a person made some decisions or they didn't.

A snapshot is seeing something, pointing the camera, and capturing it. That is "taking a picture".

As for "making a picture", the brain is fully in gear from the very beginning and the end result is already visualized. From that point on everything one does from camera/lens choices to eventually making a print, all are done to satisfy that pre-visualized image. And very often it is not what a casual observer standing beside the photographer sees of the same set of circumstances. The photographer sees the raw scene and already knows what he will do with it.

Where some people are confused is that these decisions are made in a millisecond and can to the casual observer, look the same as when a different photographer takes a snapshot.