Photographic Projections: Photography and me

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it ‘the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.’ The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of ‘Artist.’

Edgar Allan Poe

I read an article recently written by a practising photographer on the path to becoming a photographer and one stage in this journey captured my attention, that of imitating other photographers who made it in this medium, to creating one’s own body of work, a portfolio of photographs that is and to becoming a said photographer with one’s own particular style.

I kept thinking about it while I photograph. It rings in my mind when I try to compose a shot telling me “neah, maybe this is a Guy Tal, or maybe this is an Adams, or an Adamus, or a Greg Martin, maybe a Brooks Jensen etc.”. But none of them seem to be really originally mine, in terms of how the photographs look like. It’s as if whenever I go out to shoot, whenever I’m out in Nature, I recognize different photographical compositions done in the various of photographic styles of famous photographers I admire. I am looking for my personal style, but where is it? Am I going to find it or will I practice it only if I empty my mind of so many information I read about photography in the last three years?

Maybe I’ve shouldn’t read so many articles about this, or studied so many portfolio of so many photographers. Coming to think of it, what if I’d do photography not knowing anything, that is anything about composition, or exposure, only knowing how to operate my camera and lenses and so on? There are questions that really bug me lately, for some months now.

I’m in the middle of an artistical block, so to speak, very familiar to many practitioners of this intelligent way of living. I should be open minded but maybe I’m not since I let myself guided by how a photographical composition should look like, after studying so many successful photographs. I know how it needs to be done, but this is puting limits to photography, really, right? It’s like one puts margins, borderlines to this. Of course, rules have their use in this world but working only by them and with them could make us be rigid, stiff, trying not to move outside the box and never daring to make something so original that the world has never seen, something new..

Don’t get me wrong! Those great photographers out there really inspire me but they’re not gonna make me be me. They can’t help making me who I am and who I can become. I must practice being be and as much as I am inspired by them, I need to get back to myself and to know my capabilities and to play with them, try something new maybe all the time. This is creating over and over again. This is true creativity..

I’m at the crossroads actually, between them and me. :) I need to find my path, but this comes from knowing myself. I know it and I do it. One day, I hope, I’ll leave these crossroads with certainties in my mind and in my heart.

And in the end of this modest dissertation I want to quote Jay Maisel that said once “if you want to make more interesting photographs, become a more interesting person”.