It’s week 2 of the August Photography Book Club and our study of Freeman Patterson’s Photography and the Art of Seeing.. Catch up by reading the overview about the Book Club and the summary and exercises from week 1 or just jump right in from here. If you don’t have access to a copy of the book, you can still join in by participating in the exercises and reflections below. If you do have the book, you’ll have a lot more material to draw upon and work with.
I have been so impressed by the quality of the photographs and ideas being created and expressed already in week 1. To see what others have been coming up with, take a look at the photographs on the Flickr group page, posted to the Week 1 discussion board , or tagged bookclub-seeing1.
For week 2 (August 11-17th), we will focus on the second two sections: Learning to Imagine and Learning to Express. Below, I’ve provided a few quotations and exercises that struck me from these chapters. (All page numbers refer to the 2011 edition.)
Learning to Imagine
“The more sensory experiences you have, the more material your imagination has to work with. The photographer who observes his [or her] environment carefully, who lets his [or her] eyes linger on physical details, is feeding his [or her] imagination” (pg. 54).
This section explores the ideas of imagining and abstracting and how they contrast with the idea of labeling: “We look at a cup and what we see is ‘cup-ness,’ not the flaring rim, the curving handle, the mottled design, or the reflections of the windows on the side of the cup. In short, labels can limit the amount of material accessible to our imagination” (pg. 55).
Rather than focusing on such labels, Patterson encourages the photographer to go through a three step creative process: “First, you conceive or imagine a theme. Second, you find (that is, perceive) subject matter that expresses that theme or concept. Third, you conceive the best way to organize the subject matter and use your photographic tools” (pg. 56). This process of “abstracting and selecting help to make clear expression possible” (pg. 60).
Try some of the exercises in this section. For example, start by selecting an abstract subject (his example is ‘tranquility’), and then ask yourself what subject matter best expresses this subject and why. Or, think about what tones or combination of tones would express that idea. Try to seek out and take photographs of that subject matter and/or those tones to express that subject.
Learning to Express
“The goal of your photography is effective expression” (pg. 64).
The challenge of this section is to focus your photography on learning to see what your subject matter can express rather than focusing in on your own self-expression. One exercise given is to take a hard-boiled egg (or other similarly mundane object) and make at least twenty photographs of it over the course of twenty-four hours, while trying to answer the question, “What does this egg express?” For inspiration, check out some of the mundane challenges on the 365project site such as mundane-screwdriver , mundane-toothbrush , or mundane-pen to name just a few. Patterson suggests that the sequence of photography should flow from seeing, then responding, and only then making photographs.
-----------------------
Please consider tagging any photographs related to or inspired by this week’s book club with the tag bookclub-seeing2 and/or adding your photographs and thoughts about them to this post for discussion. Please also consider joining in the book club conversation with photographers outside of 365 by posting comments or images on the book club blog posts at http://www.archaeofrog.com or by joining the Flickr group: Photography Book Club http://www.flickr.com/groups/photographybookclub/ .
If you are commenting on an individual’s photograph, please consider clicking on it and then commenting on it directly. If you want to share a comment, thought, or picture with the whole group, then include it on the discussion thread itself.
And remember, “Good imagination can be infectious; catch it and pass it on to other photographers” (pg. 58).
I had a pic from 2011 that I added the tag to for "seeing" because I really thought it was appropriate. I like this challenge though and want to look for more! :)
Thank you for this. I got bogged down by reading about tones in this section. It is really good to read your overview and then the sample exercises. This put these two sections in perspective for me.
This was my shot at taking a mundane object and illustrating what it expresses. I was thinking order and communication. Now though since I was fighting PSE and that collage function I'm thinking it expresses frustration ;-)
Abstracting and Selecting: "Abstracting is recognizing both the basic form of something and the elements that make up that form.. . . spot the visual elements (line, shape, texture, perspective) . . . understand the role they play in composition."
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
@adayinmallacoota @aecasey @alia_801 @aponi @bill_fe @boatpainter @boxplayer @caroleb @cazann @chapjohn @Cheesebiscuit @christinalee @cindy_k @colie @daisy @darrenboyj @dh @dmortega @dolphin @espyetta @eudora @eyeseeu @fullcircle @houser934 @ivan @jtrudell @jyokota @kjarn @kwiksilver @la_photographic @lalypics @libertylady @lisabell @m9f9l @mara19500 @marquette81 @mercynursey @morrisphotos @mtpagano @myhrhelper @mzzhope @nadaa @olivetreeann @padlock @rah02 @ruthhill75 @salza @sentryrose @shawnasays @suesmith @summerfield @susale @swagman @taffy @tara11 @tigerdreamer @traceyhn @wildwood28
I'll see what I can do during my stay in the mountains.
Trying to search for an emotion/idea by finding a subject matter that expresses it.
SOOC, Single frame, double exposure