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Photography

Is Photography Pointless Right Now?

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Hey folks,

How are you? How is life where you are? 

Di and I have been talking a lot about the meaning of photography recently. I suppose it’s being inside so much. It feels like we are being faced with: what is important and what isn’t in our lives.  

It’s a bit of a soul searching time, isn’t it?

We have talked about how not all activities and not all experiences are the same.There are activities we do in our lives that are pure distraction. They offer us very little in terms of long term impact or deep satisfaction. 

I would say watching the news, or most TV, or scrolling endlessly on Facebook fall into this category.

Hanging out with some people would also fall into this category – when we spend time with people whom we don’t find nourishing or who are at odds with who we are.  

It’s like eating junk food, it’s nice at the time, but it doesn’t nourish your body. Afterwards you are left feeling unsatisfied, because the fat & the salt don’t nourish your body, but create a sensation of lack. 

Then there are activities in our lives that bring us a deep feeling of satisfaction. They seem to fill our bodies, and our minds and spirits, with warm and deep sensations. 

Perhaps it’s:

Spending time with people we really enjoy and appreciate. 

Doing work we love. 

Finding something we are passionate about and pursuing it.  

Spending time in nature, seeing the beauty of the world, and it’s ever changing fascination. 

And it is in this category that I think photography fits.  

When we are taking photos we are spending more time being aware of the world. We are moving away from that take-away, distraction-led world. 

We are moving away from the temporary, surface activities that are fun for a while but bring us nothing really deeply meaningful.

When we are taking photos we are actually making an effort to be here in this world. To have experiences that mean more to us than the meaningless things that are on offer elsewhere.

I have to make an effort every day to choose meaningful experiences over distraction. 

I love distraction, I will be honest. I love to get involved in the drama of the news and politics, I love to see the weird and wonderful things people share on Facebook, I love to get involved in TV series, and live a little through the worlds of others.

I am prone to distraction. 

And that’s because I am a human being with the same stresses and ups and downs as the next human.

I have responsibilities to look after my family, I have to keep calm when my kids declare war on each other, I have to make dinner when I am exhausted, I have to deal with clients who forget to pay, insurance companies who are intractable, toilets that break, landlords who are stressed. 

You know, all the normal stuff.

My concerns and my worries generate at a normal rate and get added to the ongoing heap of worries and concerns.  

And distraction is a wonderful, seductive way to escape that mound of worries – I will be honest. I like a little time of the day to just escape from these ongoing thoughts.

And I am OK with that. 

But I know that my distractions should be contained because they don’t solve anything. They don’t remove any of the worries from my heap. 

But you know what can? All the things I mentioned above, and… 

Photography.

Medina at night Chefchaouen Morocco

As Picasso said:  “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”  

When I am walking through a forest, free of human noise, but alive with the sounds of nature – birds chirping, the crunch of twigs under my foot, the rustle of leaves in the occasional gusts of wind. 

When I am walking through a busy city, not with any destination in mind, with no deadlines, I am free to experience the pulsating energy that thrives in its streets. I am free to witness, as Elliott Erwitt said, the ‘comedy of the human experience’. 

I am free, too, to really see the history and human imprint and the stories of the city. The buildings that people toiled to create, the vision of its architects, the beautiful and scenic, as well as the dirt and the shock of the urban.

This is so important to me because when I am removed from my mind and my pile of worries, when I am making an effort to not be confined to the limitations that my mind says my life is, I am free to completely bask in all the experiences this world can offer. 

The fierce energy of the sea on a stormy day.

The exquisite peace of the mountains as I walk with my family. 

The opulent, sensual beauty of summer flowers. 

Would I work to experience the world in such a deep way if I wasn’t taking photos? 

Would I make the effort to drink in the beauty of the world when it was offered to me?

Would I search out experiences, like asking an old man in Istanbul if I could take his portrait?  

Would I make such a tremendous effort to be in this world, rather than just constantly on the surface, thinking about it?

No. No, I don’t think I would. 

Diane Arbus said photography was like a license, and for her that license was a reason to approach people she found fascinating and ask them if she could take their portrait.

For me it’s a licence to sometimes get up at 3am to go photograph the full moon.  

Or take a wander through the Paris streets and find interesting characters to shoot.

It often involves conversations with people who ask me what I am shooting, and sometimes, take me to interesting places, like up an ancient clock tower in Venice to watch someone fix an old clock.  

So while we while away our time in lockdown, whether we are busy or not, it feels like now, more than ever, photography feels important. 

Photography has given me my entire way of living, my entire philosophy of who I am. It has made my life interesting and wonderful in so many ways – even when my life felt more challenging that I could possibly deal with. 

At times of grief or pain, of sadness or fear – it has brought me outside of myself and nourished my spirit so that I felt stronger and more able to see what was important.

It has also shown me that nothing lasts forever. 

Overall it shows me that life, and everything in it, is to be valued in all forms. 

That is what photography has done for me.  

It is with these ideas, these passions that Di and I have created our latest photography project.

Road to Chefchouen stall

We wanted to create a space online where everything that we love about photography will be shared with you. 

All of the creative lessons I have learned, married with the technical lessons to make your photography vision a reality.

I have poured my heart and soul, and my 30+ years of photo knowledge and experience into this project. – and will continue to do so in the months and years to come. 

I have shared all of my passion for this medium that has brought so much to me, and to so many others.

The ability, the licence, to see the world anew every day.  

I want to share with you how you too can become effortlessly confident with your camera. 

How you can connect with your inner artist. 

How you can bring everything that you are, and know and love, into your photography.

And ultimately let photography keep bringing you that deep, beautiful satisfaction that you get from nothing else. 

I would love, love, love you to join our new photography community.

There is only 2 days left to get the very special founding members price. 

Already there is a fantastic collection of people who have joined.

We would love to meet you there too. 

Any questions about the membership, just hit reply.

You’ll find the details here too, and can sign up to this amazing new and very inspiring community. 

Stay Safe. Stay Creative.

Anthony and the woman who puts all of these ideas and thoughts into beautiful words, my spectacular wife, Diana 

Photos from Hanoi, Vietnam

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Hey friends,

I hope life and photography are flourishing and flowing for you all.

So here I am in Hanoi, and I am loving it. The food, the colours, the vibrant street life – it’s an intense and exciting experience, and of course I am loving the photography here.

Today I wanted to share some photos from the last couple of days in my wanderings. Hope you like them (let me know in the comments below.)

Have an awesome week,

Anthony

Photos: The Cats of Istanbul

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“Without the cat, Istanbul would lose a part of its soul.” from Kedi

One thing you notice when you arrive in Istanbul is the abundance of stray cats and dogs. This might sound a little off putting, but in fact these are some of the friendliest animals you will meet.

Locals feed and look after the strays, sometimes creating little homes for collections of cats in the neighbourhoods.

These are just a few of my snaps of cats in the city.

If you love cats – and Istanbul – you’ll love these stories too:

In Istanbul the Cats are King:

Cats of Istanbul on Instagram

Crazy cute photos of the adventures of felines in the city. And hey, Istanbul, what a background!

Kedi – documentary about 9 cats living in Istanbul

What kind of photographer are you?

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A few days ago my son and I went on the famous Caminito del Rey walk in Andalusia.

It was once the world’s most dangerous walk,  tiny walkways clinging to the hills with 100-metre drops, but after the renovations, it now offers stunning views across beautiful gorges and valleys. It was fun walking over the moving walkways and feeling the deep stillness of nature.

Of course, I want to record the beauty we experienced, so most of the photos today are from this walk.

Di and I are working on a post about the colour blue (coming hot on the heels of our blog about the colour purple.)

I am a great lover of colour. I talk about it all the time. Almost as much as I talk about how much I love light (and we’ve had great discussions over on our online course about colour these past few weeks.)

In our explorations around the colour blue, we’ve been reading about the artist Yves Klein.

Klein was obsessed with creating the purest blue that had ever existed, so he created his own – called ‘International Klein Blue’. This blue doesn’t absorb green or red light, and so keeps an intensity of blue that he felt hadn’t existed before.

Talking about blue – this was our beach this morning after a storm last night. It was beautiful.

It’s a super fascinating story – and there have been many other artists and people who have wanted to bring the purest colour into fruition in the world.

People get very passionate about colour.

Anish Kapoor, for example, received a lot of flack for buying the exclusive rights to the technology of the ‘blackest black’ called Vantablack. A fellow artist retaliated by producing Pinkest Pink, which he said anyone could buy, except Anish Kapoor.

I discovered the art-fight issue and Yves Klein’s obsession in a very interesting essay by Simon Schama, which includes the story of the Forbes Pigment Collection. I had no idea that there was such obsessiveness about pursuing the potential of colour.

So while we were reading these cool, interesting stories on our journey to learn more  about the colour blue, Di came across this quote from Yves Klein:

“May all that emerges from me be beautiful.”

She said – That sounds like something you would say.  

And I thought it is. Beauty for me seems to be my primary motivation in taking photos.

We all have a vision of what we want to do with our photography. I have always, always simply wanted to show the world the beautiful things I see.

Of course, beauty for me is my perception of beauty. Other people will have a totally different perception.

It got me thinking about how we when we write about other photographers – Richard Avedon or Ernst Haas, for example –  they have seemed to have an overriding purpose to express something quite specific. There seems to be a singular vision that weaves its way into all of their work.

We all see ourselves and our journeys differently as photographers.

This is one of the things we love about writing about other photographers. So I wanted to pick out some of my favourite photographers and tell you what they themselves said was their motivation for taking photos.

Let’s start with Ara Güler, whom we wrote about recently: “They call me a photographer, imagine that! Son, I am a historian. I record history.”

And then, for me, Ernst Haas shows how photographers can be poets:

“Bored with obvious reality, I find my fascination in transforming it into a subjective point of view.

Without touching my subject I want to come to the moment when, through pure concentration of seeing, the composed picture becomes more made than taken.

Without a descriptive caption to justify its existence, it will speak for itself – less descriptive, more creative; less informative, more suggestive; less prose, more poetry.”

If I am to align myself to any one vision – it would be that of Haas. Because, for me, the world is so much about light, colour, shape, motion, feeling and texture. That is what I experience when I step out into the world.

With Elliott Erwitt it becomes about noticing the strange and wonderful things we humans do…

“You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.”  Elliott Erwitt

Even though he is famous for being a war photographer, Don McCullin wants now to be remembered as a landscape photographer. What I like is his philosophy that:

“Every day to me is an opportunity is to discover something new, not just about myself but about the planet that I live on.” Don McCullin

The power of remembering, that we can all be explorers, discovering things even if it’s in our own backyard.

Gordon Parks captured powerful images that carry messages about social justice and humanity. I think photography can often be a more impactful medium than writing in many ways:

“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” Gordon Parks

We can also use photography as a way to bring life into complete focus:

“Does not the very word ‘creative’ mean to build, to initiate, to give out, to act – rather than to be acted upon, to be subjective? Living photography is positive in its approach, it sings a song of life – not death.” Berenice Abbott

Or to tell stories….

Sebastião Salgado said:  “I’m not an artist. An artist makes an object. Me, it’s not an object, I work in history, I’m a storyteller.”

Or to comment or express what we are seeing in the world, and reformulate it with our own ideas…

“We’re all products of what we want to project to the world. Even people who don’t spend any time, or think they don’t, on preparing themselves for the world out there – I think that ultimately they have for their whole lives groomed themselves to be a certain way, to present a face to the world.” Cindy Sherman

Personally, I feel I am an artist. That is the ‘label’ I identify with the most. I think because it feels then like I have more licence to just create with my imagination. To not be confined. But really, labels are not significant. It’s your passion that counts.

I can find beauty in nature, in people, in buildings but also in the trash on the street or in broken and peeling walls – I often find it in grafetti.

I don’t see beauty everywhere – but there is the possibility to see it in anything.

I want to ask you now: what do you want to speak about in your photography? What is motivating and inspiring you?

I’d love to know if you’ve thought about what moves you. What gets you excited to take photos?

Is it something you are conscious of?  

I’d love to know – tell us below.

We’ll be back in a few days with our exploration into the colour blue.

Now – I’ll leave you with one last quote, which made us quite happy:

“Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.” Gordon Parks

Have a really great day, and happy photographing,

Anthony and Diana

 

It’s time for some honest feedback on your photos

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,Hey folks

I hope you are doing well and having a great week. I recently got back from Morocco. I ran our first workshop there and it was pretty stunning. The group, the locations, the atmosphere and, of course, the photography.

My favourite place in Morocco so far is Chefchaouen, the little blue-wash town, high up in the Rif mountains.

It’s an intensely peaceful place – the air is fresh, the light is beautiful and the feeling of being cut off from the world in the stunning mountains is so creatively enriching.


I am now back in southern Spain for a few weeks. Although I am working very long days at the moment, I am very much appreciating the views of the sea and the hills surrounding our little town.

This morning a huge storm swept into our bay – feeling a little as if it came out of nowhere. All of a sudden torrential rain was pouring from the skies, turning the usually calm blue sea fierce green.

The sky was filled with wild, thick grey and white clouds, layering and swirling and towering over the mountains that stretch up from the sea and our little town beneath it.

It was pretty special to watch. Nature displaying her strength and beauty.

So let’s kick off with today’s subject. I want to talk about how giving and receiving feedback on your images can radically improve your photography – and how to go about it.

This post has been inspired by the new photo-feedback site ARS launched by photographer Eric Kim and his team that I recently read about and tested out for myself.

Once you have registered you are invited to rate a series of anonymous, randomly selected images.

You can add a written critique, or not. But you have to decide to ‘Keep’ or ‘Ditch’ every image you see. By rating images, you then build up the credit to have your own rated. This is a feature which I like, as so many people are happy to hear about their work, but not necessarily to repay the favour.

I’ve been reading Eric Kim’s blog for a while now. I admire his generosity in sharing his knowledge about photography, living a creative life and building a photo-based business.

I feel ‘creatively fed’ when I read his articles, and they inspire Di and I to push ourselves more to talk about what we most believe in. Some good posts of Kim’s:

Photography is not just about your camera…. 

There are many skills that we need to have as photographers and creative people, that go beyond just taking that photo.

Such as:

  1. Developing stories and projects
  2. Developing the mindset of a photographer by being present and ‘seeing’ more of the world around us
  3. Learning the technical aspects of our cameras – to the level we feel comfortable with
  4. Staying motivated so that we can get out of our warm beds on a beautiful winter’s morning – or helping us overcome our fears so we take a photo of that intriguing person walking past us
  5. Being inspired and finding subjects that deeply move us
  6. Learning about processing! Digital or film take your pick. So that your photos don’t languish on a memory card or film roll
  7. Learning to analyse your photos, which develops your ability to ‘see’ better shots

Analysing your photos, and other people’s, is one of the key ways to radically improve your photos, and all professional photographers do it.

Joel Meyerowitz talks about the intense analysis he would do every day of his images when he started taking photos.

“I was overwhelmed. The streets, the intense flow of people, the light changing, the camera that I couldn’t quite get to work quickly enough.

It just paralysed me. I had to learn to identify what it was exactly I was responding to, and if my response was any good.

The only way to do that is to take pictures, print them, look hard at them and discuss them with other people.”

It’s a simple formula, right? Take the photos, analyse them for what works and doesn’t, then repeat and gradually over time you refine your abilities to see and capture better and better images.

Why we all need feedback 

“Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” Frank A. Clark

We are too emotionally involved with our images

A tense moment in our household is often when we are going through my images from a trip. Di and I will go through my images and she will say – no, no, no, no, maybe, yes.

And even though I know intellectually she has to not like some of my images, and we aren’t always going to like the same ones, it can be a very unpleasant experience hearing what she really thinks of my photographs.

Our photographs are an expression of ourselves, of what we love, what we have noticed, what we find interesting, who we are. So we get attached to the photos we take. It’s natural.

But just because we love certain images – does that mean the world will too?

Usually, it is the job of people who love us to say they love everything we do.

In a way I am lucky that Di doesn’t just say – oh, these are lovely darling – and not be super critical – because otherwise I would be left with a huge pile of mediocre photos and not refine them down to my very best.

And that’s what we want – to get to our very best, and to become our very best. Getting better doesn’t mean being amazing all the way along. Getting better means failing a lot, taking terrible photos, and gradually over time learning to take better ones.

It’s hard to see how to improve our images

“A very subtle difference can make the picture or not.” Annie Leibovitz

When I am critiquing my students’ work I might say: I think if you had got closer the shot would have been better, or if you had waited for the light to change you would have created a more interesting atmosphere.

Sometimes it can be very simple things that, because you were too immersed in the situation, you hadn’t thought of.

By continuously reaching out and hearing feedback, you will start to notice patterns in what is not working in your images. For example, a frequent mistake in photographing strangers is not getting close enough – letting fear hold you back.

Or, for one of my students, it was not paying attention to the quality of light – so she was shooting a lot in hard, midday sunlight which created very hard shadows on the faces of her subjects. Not the best.

The more feedback you get, the more you can see patterns in what people say about your images. You can then choose to act on these – or not. Because, just because someone says something, doesn’t mean they’re right….

Filter the feedback

It doesn’t matter who is giving the feedback – the owner of an art gallery, your best friend, or an anonymous person online – you have to remember that people are 100% subjective in their opinions of photographs.

That’s not a reason to be belligerent and ignore what people say, but it’s just to be aware and not take everything super personally.

Contemplate the feedback, see if you can pick up patterns, then choose if the ideas that people are saying seem right to you.

When I put this photo on ARS, an image that has been featured in an exhibition and tonnes of press, the most common piece of feedback was that it was too dark.

That could be many people’s opinions, but I personally love it as is, so will leave it.

There were photos of mine that I posted on ARS that were low-rated (the cover of my London book for example. I shot I love) but there were my two favourite photos from last year that were high rated, which I was stoked about. These were images I thought would have an impact as stand-alone photos.

You have to accept all critiques gracefully and gratefully – and see what you can find that is helpful for you in your journey.

Filter what you hear through your experience, knowledge and desires for your work. But listen first with an open mind, and don’t cut people off because they disagree with you.

There will always be people who don’t like your photos. Nothing you can do about that. And that’s totally cool.

I’ve had photos that have made me thousands of pounds through print sales and image licencing that I have received bad feedback on from all kinds of sources (editors, gallerists, friends and Di!)

The important thing here, though, is that you are learning about how to receive feedback, how to hear and pick out the ideas that will help you improve and develop a personal vision of your photography.

Getting feedback (and choosing what to follow and what to discard) is a huge part of developing your own skills and style.

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Elbert Hubbard

Giving Feedback

“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” Ansel Adams

The next part of the feedback is giving feedback. And to me this is a skill that most people neglect. It’s so much more fun, right, to hear what people have to say about you?

Here I want to talk you through why it’s important, what you can learn and how to go about giving constructive feedback.

Giving feedback is an excellent way to improve your photos! 

I have seriously developed my analytical skills over the past 7 years by working with hundreds of photographers on their images, on my workshops. That, in turn, has given me a whole new set of skills that has elevated my photography.

It has helped me become more aware of what I love to photograph, and it helps me make more of my time when I am taking photos. I always knew what I loved to photograph, but it was a more subconscious feeling that drove me.

Now I feel more aware of not just what I love, but where I want to go on my journey as a photographer.

It’s knowing, too, that sometimes the photos you love evoke nothing for other people, and that’s OK. It’s about developing your own understanding about what photography means to you.

Giving feedback exercises your imagination 

When faced with a boring photo which you have to comment on – you really need to engage all of your knowledge and experience. To produce ideas about what could have been for that photo, you have to turn on your brain and create!

When faced with a photo that could have worked but doesn’t – your imagination and visualisation skills kick in, so try to imagine and articulate what the photographer could have done better.

I encourage you to use ARS to develop your analytical skills in this way. Don’t just do the ‘Keep’ or ‘Ditch’ button; really look at the photo and think in detail of how it could be improved or why you like the image.

You will learn a tremendous amount about what drives and inspires you as a photographer by looking at other people’s work. You will also see your prejudices and foibles too.

For example, I have no great love for macro photography, but when faced with it I need to see beyond my preconceived ideas and look at what the inherent qualities of the photo are.

It’s not just photos you don’t like you need to examine – but photos you do! Picking apart a photo you don’t like, and reimaging it better, is one skill. To examine photos you love brings in other skills – why did you love it, what is it about the photo that has made you think/feel/imagine/desire/awaken/shocked you?

Looking at other photographer’s work will feed your creative mind

When I look at photographers I love, I might see elements that I could be inspired to bring into my photography, however subtle.

Use of light or colour, ambience, mood, a particular subject. To surround yourself with creative things that pique your interest is intensely fruitful for your photography.

Giving feedback is just as important to the process – maybe even more so – that getting feedback

  • You learn more about your own style by examining how other people’s approach and how they see the world, and consequently you yourself will learn to see more openly.
  • Giving feedback solidifies your own learning about photography – one of the best ways to remember something is to teach it to someone else. Repetition leads to remembering.
  • You are put in the position of identifying how you would have approached a subject, which could potentially open up new ideas about what you want to photograph.
  • Challenge yourself to find something in every photo to comment on. When you are faced with a photo that you really don’t like, you have to dig deep into your knowledge and imagination in order to provide constructive criticism.
  • Be aware that there is no wrong interpretation of a photograph – we are human beings. We have our experiences and interests and likes.
  • Believing in our personal vision is important if we are to develop as photographers. There is no right or wrong when it comes to how you feel about a photograph.

Ideas for giving feedback

  1. I like to start by taking in the photo as a whole

It’s not just about technical examination and it not just about feeling – it’s about how all of the elements in a photograph work together.

So what do you think and feel on the first look? That immediate first impression will make up most of your analysis.

Trust your instincts when you are looking at images. What does your gut tell you? What is the photo saying to you.

When giving feedback speak about the impact the photo makes on you, what thoughts or ideas it sparks. It’s amazing to hear what your work makes people think of.

It’s fascinating to see your photo from another person’s perspective.

2) Then break down the photo. Ask yourself:

  • What is the subject? Is there more than one? Where is the subject placed?
  • How is it composed? What is interesting/uninteresting about the composition?
  • What is the photograph trying to express? What are the ideas it means to convey

3) How could this photo be improved?

  • What are the technical skills that you would use to improve the photo?
  • What are the compositional skills?
  • What are the seeing / feeling skills?
  • How would you have approached this subject?
  • What about the photographer’s position or angle?

For example, if you see a photo that feels lifeless and boring, you might get the sense that the photographer is not excited by the subject. So the advice might be – get in front of a subject that excites you!

4) What do you like about this photo?

  • Highlight the things that are successful in the shot if you can

All forms of creativity are subjective

I read some time ago that the famous writer Doris Lessing submitted a novel anonymously to her publisher with whom she had already had several books published. The book was rejected and caused a bit of a scandal about subjectivity in the book world.

It just shows that a famous name clearly carries a lot weight, but also that we are all subjective creatures. What floats my boat may not float yours.

It’s why writers are repeatedly rejected and then hit upon one publisher who turns their novels into best sellers.

I hope this has given you some ideas about giving and getting feedback. I like to think that when we build our skills in the thing we love to do – we enhance all aspects of our lives.

I found the process of giving and getting feedback on ARS exciting. I’d love to know if you use this site, or other sites to get feedback on your work.

How has giving and receiving feedback helped (or hindered?) your photography?

Let us know by commenting below.

Have a great week and happy photographing,

Anthony and Diana

Cats on my camera bag in Istanbul!