If it doesn't inspire the person making the picture, then it won't inspire anyone else either.
I work on being a better picture maker, which requires a lot of practice. I have no interest in being a "photographer".
does a mediocre image of a clear-cut hillside inspire anything?
An artist should foremost be interested in whatever he or she is doing and not give a f&$k about what an audience thinks ... or at least that's what some people want to believe. An artist, in order to be successful, needs to generate art that resonates in some way or other with an audience. So, keeping an eye to how people will interpret your image is always necessary, if you want to make something that will actually be appreciated by anyone other than you wife and mother. But, as you should be able to understand from @grain elevator 's post above, you therefore need to perform your artistic activity within the scope of what is understandable to the audience, almost without exception. Go too far out, and no one will get even an inkling of what you were trying to convey. That might mean engaging in reproducing tropes and cliches as well as you can. Or it might come natural to you. Or, if you take photos of naked women, you're guaranteed at least some level of appreciation from the hungry horde.
The fact is, 99.99999999% of photos are looked at and assumed to "mean" nothing more than "show what I took a picture of". With landscapes, that is sometimes enough.
If it doesn't inspire the person making the picture, then it won't inspire anyone else either.
I would differ.
As an example, for those of us who live around the local rain forest, photos of trees may be something we like, while those who live in arid regions where trees are rare, those photos may be very impressive indeed.
The impression created involves the photographer, the work, and the viewer.
Great photo! As a photographer, I think you made it with a swing lens pano or a curved film pinhole and I find that very smart, as a viewer l, photographer or not, it gives a great sense of place.
I wonder what you mean by "manipulate" though. Just the color?
By successful, do you mean financially successful?
No. By success, I mean as an artist. Success for an artist is both the realization of the artwork in some at least somewhat satisfactory way and appreciation of that artwork by an audience, where the audience understands the work at least to some degree as it was intended. Money has nothing to do with it. Basically, he does what he was trying to do and the viewer "gets" it.
I am at the half-way mark in Rick Rubin's book. I am somewhat unsettled by the simplicity of the writing and the relative clarity with which he arrives at his various points. I think I was expecting something complicated and "academic" perhaps?
@awty I was going to cite a couple examples from your gallery offerings here, but didn't want to throw you under the bus. Since you entered the fray though... Some of your offerings I would call dark, foreboding and mysterious. Is that a feeling you are trying to elicit from viewers?
I go to where my imagination takes me. I wouldn't consider anything I do to be dark or foreboding, quite the opposite. My worst nightmare would be Ikea, thats where people who have no imagination go. I make pictures for myself, I think everyone should do that.
This above all: to thine own self be true
I would say I gave it character and a little spirit. I was listening to Moby Dick at the time and that probably influenced my rendering. I love the building and have many shots of it over the years, but haven't printed it before, waiting till I was ready. At the same time I took an 8x10 and a 4x5, i might do something with them later or not. I often take many photos of places with out printing them, waiting to get the right picture. I need to have some sort of attraction to a place to make a good picture. Some times I see nothing other times I see everything.@awty I will cite another example of yours from the gallery "The Eclipse" is to me a moody representation of the subject. Maybe that's a better adjective to apply, Moody. You've added some extra atmosphere and interest to some of your images and case in point my reaction to them is different to that of some others and possibly not a reaction that you would have expected. I enjoy them for this.
I just finished reading Rick Rubin’s ”The Creative Act: A Way of Being” and he discusses this throughout the work, mostly in the context of removing “rules” of all sorts in order to free up creativity.
I am at the half-way mark in Rick Rubin's book. I am somewhat unsettled by the simplicity of the writing and the relative clarity with which he arrives at his various points. I think I was expecting something complicated and "academic" perhaps?
Clearly the trick is to grow a big bushy beard and talk a lot of BS.
Clearly the trick is to grow a big bushy beard and talk a lot of BS.
If it is BS, it certainly seems to be BS that has resonated well with a lot of remarkable musicians!
And wear a worn broad brimmed hat.
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