Photography

You can't expect your subjects to open up to you if you don't open up to them.

You don’t want to make your photos too obvious. You want the viewer to work hard to come up with his or her own interpretation of reality. You do this by adding mystery and removing context from your images:

“A camera is a device for learning how to see without a camera.” —Dorothea Lange

Every image I take of a stranger is a projection of my own emotions and beliefs upon them. Each image I shoot of a stranger is a self-portrait.

When photographs were first invented, people thought of them like paintings. There was nothing else to compare them to. Thus, subjects in photos copied subjects in paintings. And since people sitting for portraits couldn’t hold a smile for the many hours the painting took, they adopted a serious look. Subjects in photos adopted the same look.

I heard of an exercise used in a writing workshop that involved imagining a photograph so personal that we couldn’t show it to anyone. What would it be? That’s the level of exposure we’re aiming for.

• Beware of these two fallacies of photographic appreciation: 1) You like a photograph because you think/have been told that it is good. 2) You think a photograph is good because you like it.