photo critique

shecky said:

ok.



based on these images, it is neither dramatic nor abstract. in fact, while i find many of them to be decent enough photos, i find all of them to be quite pedestrian and expected. i think that for these "typical" kinds of photos yours look fine, tho i do find they fall flat a lot - not sure if that is done in postprocessing or what, but the overriding sepia tonality to them combined with the relative flatness (and by that i mean lack of contrast visually, gesturally, and tone-aly). to me they feel very photoshopped in an effort to make average photos unaverage. i do not know if that is true, but thats how it feels.

what i think would make these images much more engaging is for you to move away from the representational quality of the images and toward the formal quality. show me not the top of a column of a building, instead show me the force of weight, compression and time on a stone pier. show me the heavyness contrasted with the lightness of the ornament. etc..

if you like abstract, take a look at the work of Aaron Siskind if you have not already.

EDIT: i just remembered this, might be helpful.

i was critiquing a graduating student recently (i teach graphic design) and his work was OK. it was well executed. he knew how to use type. he knew how to use a grid. etc... but for some reason it all fell flat. it just did not DO anything for me. it was competent. we got to chatting and it turns out he is a musician. he was telling about playing music and his eyes lit up, he was animated, his body language totally changed. I stopped him in mid-sentence and asked him "do you love music?" he paused and said "of course." i asked, "would you play music even if you never got paid for it, never got a record deal?" he laughed and said "got paid for it? it cost me an arm and a leg to play music for equipment, etc.. and i would do it no matter what it cost."

I told him that emotion, that drive, that LOVE was what was missing from his work. his work looked like someone programmed a computer to make it for him. it needed the love.

i feel the same way about your work.

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