{"id":67695,"date":"2017-10-20T15:53:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T22:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=67695"},"modified":"2017-10-20T15:57:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T22:57:43","slug":"why-you-must-kill-your-masters-in-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/20\/why-you-must-kill-your-masters-in-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Must Kill Your Masters in Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elegance.
Elegance. Woman with umbrella. Seoul, 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Find inspiration from the masters of photography<\/a>, but never become their slave.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Book: MASTERS by HAPTICPRESS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I started photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson<\/a> was my master. I found deep inspiration in his shooting style and zen and life philosophy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The conductor. Downtown LA, 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But for several years, all I did was try to imitate his style. Look for an interesting background, and wait for the right person to come into the frame. It soon bored me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I soon got a little depressed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I got inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, but could I ever become better<\/em> than him?<\/p>\n

Stay true to your own vision<\/h2>\n
\"MASTERS
MASTERS FIRST EDITION TITLE PAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thus, I started an extremely intense period of scholarship and studying the masters of photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d trying to figure out what their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153secret sauce\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was.<\/p>\n

The result of all my studies:<\/p>\n

\n The true masters of photography had faith in themselves, and stayed focused on their own artistic vision.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The masters killed their masters\u00e2\u20ac\u201d just like how Rene Burri<\/a> killed Henri Cartier-Bresson by defying his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rules\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (by using a telephoto lens). Or like Martin Parr<\/a> when he started to shoot color (also defying Henri Cartier-Bresson, who said only black and white photography was legitimate).<\/p>\n

Become your own master<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We all need a root, foundation, and apprenticeship in photography. But once we have mastered the fundamentals, we must BREAK LOOSE, and cut the umbilical cord with our master(s).<\/p>\n

Be grateful for what the masters have taught you, but learn to KILL YOUR MASTER<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, set on your own path. Be brave, have faith in your own vision, and one day\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you will become a master in the eyes of your future students. And then you too should hope one day, your students will also kill you, to find their unique voice in photography.<\/p>\n

BE STRONG,
\nERIC<\/p>\n

New Book: MASTERS EDITION I by HAPTICPRESS<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"LEARN<\/a>
MASTERS: First Edition Book<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
MASTERS BACK COVER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MASTERS EDITION I by HAPTICPRESS ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Find inspiration from the masters of photography, but never become their slave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67695","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\/09\/elegance-seoul-2009.jpg?fit=4368%2C2912&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67695","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=67695"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67699,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67695\/revisions\/67699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}