Video
“It’s like winter”.
How do you capture something that you love. Your passion, your city, your partner, your family. The persisting feeling that no matter how hard you try, it will not only never measure up, but you will disgrace that very thing you cherish. If you feel that way too, I’m sorry to say I have no solution. But I have this Rapha Rides series that Ertzui Films made for the cycling brand – or perhaps they just made it for cycling. I recommend the entire playlist, and this specific video, and this specific passage from 3.05 to 3.40.
Photography
In the same vein of “synthesizing feelings”, Maura Sullivan is a contemporary photographer with this ability to convey a wealth of information and suggestion, while resorting to simple visual cues: a limb, a line, a reflection. An abundance of contrast and texture which compliment both raw intimacy and ethereal impressions. Timeless aesthetics, visual poetry.
(Discovered through Baastian Woudt’s newsletter – more about Baastian’s work next month).
Composition
Beginner’s tip
After having a few of friends asking for feedback about their photography, I ended up compiling a list of tips and concepts that address recurrent improvement areas that I noticed over the years, including in my own images. This might materialize one day into something hopefully more exciting than an ebook, but in the meanwhile, some of these notions will appear here from time to time.
This one is very simple, and we’ve mentioned it in the previous paragraphs: to suggest more than to describe, by showing less (crop tighter and/or « enter » the subject), showing differently (through shadows, abstraction, symbolism, blur). The viewer is often visually educated and has probably seen the scene you are showing a million times. By giving them more room for interpretation, they can fill in with their own narrative, and we all love our own narratives. This is inherent to books, while other art forms such as photography often need a little restraint.
Sanity
Speaking of a little restraint.
Comments, discoveries and links are all welcome.