Monday, February 08, 2010

If You Can’t Be Original, You Should at Least Be Honest

RT @mediamentor: RT @blackstar: If You Can't Be Original, You Should at Least Be Honest
http://ow.ly/15kKk

If You Can't Be Original, You Should at Least Be Honest


February 9 | By Peter Phun | Posted in Art of Photography

[excerpt]

".... Many photographers start out with lofty goals. The budding artist wants to be an original — to immortalize something unique with his or her camera.

These beginners soon learn that there are very few "secret" locations that have not been captured in photographs (particularly now that a camera is part of most everyone's mobile phone). For some, this realization makes them not want to step outside or hold a camera up to their eye, because everything they see has been photographed so many times before.

Of course, to become an artist, you need to use your camera. It's how you learn all those pesky dials, knobs and buttons. And it's how you develop, through years of practice, a style that is uniquely your own.

It's how you become an original.

A Disturbing Trend

What I find disturbing, though, is that some beginning photographers don't seem to value originality.

In fact, they don't even understand the difference between learning photography and creating photography. They think that snapping a shutter is what photography is about. ....."