Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mike Johnston wrote: > > You are not a real aesthete until you know what you love and what you > hate, irrespective of the prevailing mass taste or critical consensus. > This may entail coming to grips with liking things that some savants > detest and also perhaps hating things that are widely admired. IMHO the > three major failings of photographers in this area are: > > 1. They conflate technical beauty with aesthetic interest or effect. > 2. They suffer from a sort of vague acceptance of the amorphous general > idea that some subjects "make good pictures," ... > 3. They get stuck: that is, they don't take into account the fact that > aesthetic taste CHANGES as one's experience of art moves along. > Great! On the subject of subject matter: composition is key. Flowers can be used as part of a composition, as can apples, cats, children, trees, rocks, water etc. etc. etc. Interesting shapes and shadows can often be found in the most interesting, or otherwise mundane places. Great photography, regardless of subject matter, means great composition. I think the real issue about both color slides that are super saturated as well as cliche subjects is that both the content of the photo as well as the loudness at which it is played (saturation) are emphasized over basic composition. Jonathan Borden