What is a good photograph?
It's only after 4 years since my first click on a SLR camera do I start to think about this question seriously.
That is after I learnt the basics of camera operations, print some black and white pictures on my own, shot for Straits Times, worked as a copywriter with a senior art director in a 4A ad agency, got sacked by a local publishing firm as a marketing executive, assisting other photographers, start shooting commercially, heard some people saying good things about my shitty works, and others trashing my favourite works, dropped my 8KG camera in the middle of a shoot with my client beside me, etc etc
I cannot remember how many times people asked me this question before. Many assumed that being a passionate photographer and making a living with it, I should have a "this is it, once and for all" answer.
Seriously, I don't. (how sad)
But i can share what I have learnt from my experience and maybe the audience can find a definition for themselves.
During my NS days, i came across one of the first few exhibition of Ken Seet, a very established black and white photographer in singapore. His works then was one of the reasons that started me in photography.
So after a few years of fooling around with the camera and inhaling chemicals in the darkroom, I must show my works to him and hear what he says about them. He was very receptive to meet me even though he had never meet me before.
He went through all the 40 8x10 prints i brought, and selected a few and commented.
"I like these lot, I don't like these lot"
He explained what he would have done in the darkroom given the same negatives, but throughout the process, he did not use the two words I was expecting. "Good" and "Bad"
"What do you think are good about those that you like?" I asked.
His eyebrows tighten a little, and told me a theory that I still remember till now
"If something is best expressed in words, then use words, don't use photography. Likewise, if you chose photography to be the medium, then do it such that no other medium can express it better than photography"
It reminds me of a saying in buddism.
"The words in the scriptures are like your finger, and enlightment is the moon. The finger can point out where the moon is, but the finger is not the moon"
The senior art director in the 4A agency has a different view.
He has many photo books in the small cupboard beside his desk.
Richard Averdon, Irvin Penn, Henri Cartier Bresson, and many other big names.
But, he also has a lot of "crap" photos lying around, and from the look of it, they are suppose to serve the same purpose as those big names' books.
How can I miss the oppotunity of showing my works to a art director in a 4A ad agency?
Weird enough, he used the same words. "like" and "don't like". and no "good" or "bad"
"Photography is an mean to an end. End is not the photo that is made, end is what is going on in the viewer's mind"
During my first year in shanghai, there is a illegal hawker from AnHui selling fried noodles after 9pm every night.
Beside where he put his salt, vinegar and the frying wok, is an oily and dirty photo of him and his wife (who is selling the same thing in the next traffic light junction)
I told him that putting the photo near a high temperature environment will make the colour fade faster.
"It's ok, as long as the face can be seen, it's ok"
So every night, I went down to buy his fried noodles (he is a damn good cook), I see his photo losing color saturation a little by little, and then he will print a new one, with the right colors, and let it fade again.
Every night, while waiting for him cook the noodles, I will be waiting for 3 mins beside him. and it's hard not to notice that photo because i commented on it to him.
After 6 months, that photo looks like a TV frame, showing an art film to me. desaturate slowly, regain full colour, and desaturate again.
maybe i was too lonely then in shanghai, but it was actually quite an experience, almost as good as a well curated exhibition.
What is a good photograph?
Damn! I wish I know.
That is after I learnt the basics of camera operations, print some black and white pictures on my own, shot for Straits Times, worked as a copywriter with a senior art director in a 4A ad agency, got sacked by a local publishing firm as a marketing executive, assisting other photographers, start shooting commercially, heard some people saying good things about my shitty works, and others trashing my favourite works, dropped my 8KG camera in the middle of a shoot with my client beside me, etc etc
I cannot remember how many times people asked me this question before. Many assumed that being a passionate photographer and making a living with it, I should have a "this is it, once and for all" answer.
Seriously, I don't. (how sad)
But i can share what I have learnt from my experience and maybe the audience can find a definition for themselves.
During my NS days, i came across one of the first few exhibition of Ken Seet, a very established black and white photographer in singapore. His works then was one of the reasons that started me in photography.
So after a few years of fooling around with the camera and inhaling chemicals in the darkroom, I must show my works to him and hear what he says about them. He was very receptive to meet me even though he had never meet me before.
He went through all the 40 8x10 prints i brought, and selected a few and commented.
"I like these lot, I don't like these lot"
He explained what he would have done in the darkroom given the same negatives, but throughout the process, he did not use the two words I was expecting. "Good" and "Bad"
"What do you think are good about those that you like?" I asked.
His eyebrows tighten a little, and told me a theory that I still remember till now
"If something is best expressed in words, then use words, don't use photography. Likewise, if you chose photography to be the medium, then do it such that no other medium can express it better than photography"
It reminds me of a saying in buddism.
"The words in the scriptures are like your finger, and enlightment is the moon. The finger can point out where the moon is, but the finger is not the moon"
The senior art director in the 4A agency has a different view.
He has many photo books in the small cupboard beside his desk.
Richard Averdon, Irvin Penn, Henri Cartier Bresson, and many other big names.
But, he also has a lot of "crap" photos lying around, and from the look of it, they are suppose to serve the same purpose as those big names' books.
How can I miss the oppotunity of showing my works to a art director in a 4A ad agency?
Weird enough, he used the same words. "like" and "don't like". and no "good" or "bad"
"Photography is an mean to an end. End is not the photo that is made, end is what is going on in the viewer's mind"
During my first year in shanghai, there is a illegal hawker from AnHui selling fried noodles after 9pm every night.
Beside where he put his salt, vinegar and the frying wok, is an oily and dirty photo of him and his wife (who is selling the same thing in the next traffic light junction)
I told him that putting the photo near a high temperature environment will make the colour fade faster.
"It's ok, as long as the face can be seen, it's ok"
So every night, I went down to buy his fried noodles (he is a damn good cook), I see his photo losing color saturation a little by little, and then he will print a new one, with the right colors, and let it fade again.
Every night, while waiting for him cook the noodles, I will be waiting for 3 mins beside him. and it's hard not to notice that photo because i commented on it to him.
After 6 months, that photo looks like a TV frame, showing an art film to me. desaturate slowly, regain full colour, and desaturate again.
maybe i was too lonely then in shanghai, but it was actually quite an experience, almost as good as a well curated exhibition.
What is a good photograph?
Damn! I wish I know.
posted by rolento @ 10:10 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:08 PM,
Anonymous said…
who cares anyway?
what is the benefit to know what is a good photograph, as long as i can become a good photographer?
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