Shooting Beyond The Facts

Some photos are of someone, while others are about someone.  It's a crucial distinction

Of photos record facts and not much more.  In writing terms, they tell rather than show.  They are what they are, and may taste great but are certainly less filling.  They're the photos you want to show your friends, because they're safe and easy to appreciate.  Who doesn't like a nice sunset over the ocean or an Eiffel tower in the rain?

About photos convey things beyond fact--way far beyond, if they're good.  Things that can't be measured and recorded--like attitude or mystery or sorrow or inner strength.  But this kind of thing can certainly be felt in a photograph, and that's what makes them memorable and special and rare.  It's also what makes them harder to share.  People rarely like to expose their deep, inner feelings and emotions.  It's much safer to enjoy such things safely inside your own head.

Shooting facts is easy; all you need is solid technical ability and you're there.  Shooting beyond the facts is much harder, because it's elusive and fleeting and personal.   Recording the wind speed outside only takes a handheld mechanical device.  Recording how that windy day felt takes something much different.

That something much different is most likely empathy.  And lots of it.  But like Tom Cruise says in the old movie, Risky Business, "If you can't say it, you can't do it."  Similarly, with empathy in your photos, if you can't feel it, you can't shoot it.  So you have to be honest with yourself, and not confuse of and about.  But you'll know the different when you feel it.

New Normal Is No Normal

 When someone tells you it's not possible, often what they really mean is, they don't think it'll be very popular--with their boss, with their costumers, with whomever.  They're using a personal narrative of social norms rattling around in their head to assess how they think something new will get along with those norms.  Essentially, it's their opinion about how they think others will receive it.

But these days there is no one "normal."  There's not even only a handful.  There are hundreds or thousands or...who knows?  So if you're suffering rejection,  the real problem becomes, why are you showing your work or bouncing ideas off the wrong people?   Maybe it's because you don't even realize or know about all the other tribes out there.  If that's the case, you need to get out there and find the tribe that already digs what you have to say.

But maybe you like your current social tribe, and want to introduce them to your
"new" ideas.  That's worthy, too--cross-pollination often yields the best kind of new.  "Classic with a twist" as they say.  But you can't just hit someone with it all at once and expect them to jump aboard. 

People can't understand something until they know something about it. And you can't expect people to stick their necks out for something they don't understand.  You can, however, help them understand.  With..what else?  Story.

"Let's start doing a cross-processed look because it looks cool and I just saw that Mert & Marcus are doing it" won't cut it.  Better to try something like, "I get a retro feel from that dress. 1970s, right?  Well, back then they were doing this effect with photos, and if we tried that for the campaign, it might help sell the 70s era vibe.  Let me show you a few from back then, and you'll see what I mean."  Then you can name drop and mention M&M are using it now, too (but you have a better twist on it, right?).

The main reason you need story is, the client is thinking in story, too, and lots of it. That's what marketing is all about (and as a commercial photographer at least, you're part of the marketing team).  Their new calico print dress isn't just something different for a change, it probably has a story behind the artisans in India who make it and are using sustainable cotton and eco-friendly dyes to resurrect a design from 1000 years ago.

Of course, not everything works like this.  But you (hopefully) won't be getting asked to photograph the $5 shorts at Target anyway. 

Nothing's popular automatically or just because. New ideas take work--yours and theirs--so it's a good idea to be part of story process, bringing in your own contributions.  You can't just talk about technique.  You have to speak in story these days, too.  It's the only firm ground under the shifting sands of no normal.

Wheat From The Chaff

It's an old expression, but a goodie.  Separating the wheat from the chaff--the valuable from the worthless.

But with art, it's not always clear what's the valuable, and what's the worthless.  And for the sake of being extreme, I'm going to go so far as to say that it's the actual, physical work that is worthless--or nearly so--and that the value really lies in the story behind it.  The story about who created it, how they created it, the times they created it in, the story of the person in the work...

This notion hit me when I read a story about ocean treasure hunters recovering a huge cache of gold doubloons from a sunken galleon.  Turns out, to collectors, these little pieces of history are worth a lot more than their weight in gold.  And that only makes sense.  If someone just wanted gold, they would go buy some generic bars.  And Pieces of Eight were, at one point, just such generic gold.  But by now, those lumps of gold have been transformed into objects that magically hold within them romantic stories of pirates and navel battles and sunken ships.  People, for whatever reason, like their stories anchored in physical objects.

But we don't always need 300 years to pass before this story-into-value happens.  The dynamic, I think, comes into play in the here and now as well.  When a photographer--or any artist--really commands high prices, it's his or her story that people are paying for.  Dismiss it as hype or salesmanship or marketing instead of talent if you want, but maybe first consider some of your favorite artist, and why you like them.   You may merely like plenty of anonymous works, but I'll bet the ones that you truly love got that way mostly because of things outside of the actual piece of art.

So maybe it's not a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff, but of creating wheat while creating the chaff.  Or something like that.