The quote that haunts me

Park Güell View #9 (Double Agbar). Barcelona, 2014

I can’t remember where I read it or heard it…or who said it, but I find it constantly banging about in my brain bucket whenever I look at my images and whenever I am out with my eye to the viewfinder.To wit:

“Show me something I haven’t already seen before.”

That’s pretty much it in a tiny seashell. How do we make images so different that the viewer reacts by taking a step back and exclaiming, “Wow, I haven’t ever seen anything like that before!” (Caveat: some photographs take time to decipher and understand, so the “wow” can be delayed in some cases.)

This is REALLY hard to do and most of my images fail when I objectively apply this particular test. How about you? The hope is that, with time, one does begin to collect a file of images that are truly different from anything else on the planet. This is possible based on the simple fact that no one of us is alike in how we see things…so, theoretically, if we can dig down into our inner mini-me (nice and deep) we should be able to tap into an individuality that can be reflected in our photographs. Theoretically.

Ahhh…it’s all so easy to say.