{"id":64008,"date":"2017-08-27T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T03:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=64008"},"modified":"2017-08-27T20:50:22","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T03:50:22","slug":"dont-make-descriptive-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/27\/dont-make-descriptive-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Make Descriptive Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kyoto
Kyoto Silhouette, 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m promoting an ANTI-OBJECTIVE school of photography.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make pictures to just describe or show things as they are. Rather, seek to make your own SUBJECTIVE view of the world, realty, and things.<\/p>\n

OPEN SOURCE<\/a><\/h2>\n

DOWNLOAD PDF: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Make Descriptive Pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

1. The death (and rebirth) of painting<\/h2>\n
\"Blurry
Blurry picture of Cindy. Kyoto, 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the past, before photography… painters sought to describe the world around them, by trying to paint \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photo-realistic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d works of art. For example, they wanted to make paintings that looked like picture-perfect photographs.<\/p>\n

For example, early painters tried to show paintings of sunsets, to look like a sunset they saw in real life. Or when they painted a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153still life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of a bowl of fruit, they wanted to make the apples look as real as possible.<\/p>\n

You can imagine, when photography came about, and did a better job \u00e2\u20ac\u0153describing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objective\u00e2\u20ac\u009d visual \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reality\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the world much quicker, more efficiently, and more accurately than painting, a lot of painters were pissed off. Why? Cameras and photographers were taking over their jobs, and doing it better than them.<\/p>\n

Anyways, the (good) painters were smart. The Impressionists, Surrealists, and Cubists did a good job of showing the true strength of painting\u00ef\u00bc\u0161the job of making a FALSE view of reality. To evoke the feeling<\/em> of a scene, rather than an objective view of what it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really looked like.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

2. How did Picasso see the world differently, from the rest of us?<\/h2>\n
\"Weeping
Weeping Woman 1937 Pablo Picasso 1881-1973<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example a lot of people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153get\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Picasso<\/a>. They see his works as childish. But Picasso was able to paint like Raphael<\/a> as a youth. He realized something more interesting through Cubism\u00e2\u20ac\u201d he could create his own view of representation of reality. He compressed all perspectives, and put them all on one flat visual plane. For example in his paintings, you can see the front, back, and the sides of a woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face, all in the same image.<\/p>\n

\"PICASSO
PICASSO X ERIC KIM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Fudge reality<\/h2>\n
\"Kyoto
Kyoto selfie with Cindy. Reflection, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyways, as photographers, we are fighting against the tyranny of reality. We can only warp and bend reality to a certain extent. By using telephoto or wide-angle lenses, we can change how our pictures look… when compared to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. For example, I think the way our eyes see the real world is roughly a 40mm perspective (in landscape format, as our two eyes are arranged in a landscape format).<\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/p>\n

4. Ways how photographers bend reality:<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To shoot a vertical (portrait orientation) picture is NOT how we see reality. <\/li>\n
  2. We see the world in color<\/a>, and shooting black and white<\/a> is a unique and different way of seeing reality. Or if you shoot color, to process your colors in an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unnatural\u00e2\u20ac\u009d way. <\/li>\n
  3. Using lenses wider than a 40mm lens (like a 28mm<\/a>) or lenses longer than a 40mm (like a 85mm lens). <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Anyways, our duty as photographers isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to just try to make picture-perfect representations of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objective\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reality. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to paint our own version, or describe our own version of reality… how we<\/em> see the world.<\/p>\n

    \"Eric
    Eric Kim selfie with flash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    5. How to photograph your own reality<\/h2>\n
    \"Cindy
    Cindy in Ryokan. Uji, Kyoto 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    More practical suggestions\u00ef\u00bc\u0161<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Process your pictures, or use filters or presets<\/a> that describe how you FEEL. How does your processing of your pictures change or affect the emotional response you get from your pictures? Example\u00ef\u00bc\u0161high contrast processing for edgy or dynamic images. Muted or desaturated colors for more nostalgic or soft images. Gritty black and white for raw and harsh images. <\/li>\n
    2. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to imitate the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153look\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of other artists. Seek to make pictures that reveal YOUR subjective view of reality. <\/li>\n
    3. Accept the truth that there is no such thing as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objectivity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in photography.<\/strong> All photographs are lies, or subjective perspectives or points of view from YOU. <\/li>\n
    4. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make pictures to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153describe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d what things look like. Play around with your perspective, angle, tilt your camera, and use the flash to make it LOOK DIFFERENT from what it looks in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Create surreal images, that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look real.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"Reflection
      Reflection of Cindy in Ukata in our Ryokan in Uji, Kyoto 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      BE CREATIVE EVERYDAY,
      \nERIC<\/p>\n

      EMPOWER YOUR INNER-ARTIST WITH HAPTIC TOOLS ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m promoting an ANTI-OBJECTIVE school of photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/ERIC-KIM-PHOTOGRAPHY-KYOTO-0136120.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64012,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64008\/revisions\/64012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}