Four Artists; Four Visions

The great thing about photography is that anyone can do it!

Now, hold your horses there, Buckwheat!

No, I don’t mean that just anyone can go out and make powerful, mind-blowing, supremely-profound, images on Day One. You could be forgiven for thinking this given how easy it is to press the button on your mobile phone camera or on the latest point-and-shoot and get a well-exposed frame on your memory card…and the general uber-ubiquity of photographic images in today’s visually-saturated world.

No, I meant something a bit different.

To wit: Anyone has the potential to make wonderful images because each of us is a unique individual, with unique and very personal life experiences and, therefore, each of us has a one-of-a-kind way of seeing our surroundings. With a bit (years!?) of practice, and self-exploration (“the unexamined life is not worth living”), this personal vision can translate into photographs that no one else could possibly make–even if they were standing right next to you, with the exact same camera and lens.

This idea of individuality = unique personal vision is not new to those with even a tiny bit of background in art. After all, no one confuses a Dalí with a Goya, or a Picasso with a van Gogh…or even a Mozart with a Charles Ives. And the same applies to photography as art–you certainly won’t confuse an Ansel Adams with a Cindy Sherman.

As an example, take a recent outing I had into the foothills above Boulder with three other photographers: Kate Zari Roberts, Dana Bove, and María Rosa Fusté. The four of us carried different machines…Dana with a Canon full-frame DSLR and a macro lens, María with a Sony point-and-shoot, Kate, with her iPhone 6 Plus and various filters and apps, and me with my full frame Nikon DSLR and a telephoto lens.

But, we each carried something far more important–completely different life experiences as men and women in this strange and marvelous world. We all grew up differently, lived in different places, suffered different traumas and embraced different joys, and thus learned to see reality in different ways.

Here, then, is some of what we each saw on that short stroll in the woods:

First, Kate Zari Roberts. She does some incredible things with that iPhone Plus, and her personal style comes across quite clearly…

Daisy. Kate Zari Roberts, 2015

Flowers. Kate Zari Roberts, 2015

Then, María Rosa Fusté. Nature photography is not really her thing and she was more interested in the social aspect of our walk than the photography, as she herself will readily admit, but you can see an example of what caught her eye here….

Blat (Wheat). María Rosa Fusté, 2015

Then, Dana Bove. He always does great flower work in color. Today, he also experimented with a monochrome version…

Bells in Color. Dana Bove, 2015

Bells in Black and White. Dana Bove, 2015

Finally, me and my B&W obsession…

Deadhead. Daniel Joder, 2015

The Swamp. Daniel Joder, 2015

So, all four of us walked the same path together that day, but we each experienced our surroundings very differently. And your photographs would have been just as different as well!