PHOTOGRAPHY

Yesterday morning we released the first 3 of 12 films called
PHOTOGRAPHY: Making Meaning.

A person wrote to us after watching the first film: “It’s beautiful. The story, the photos, the music… everything together makes it truly extraordinary. It’s so thoughtfully made, and I really enjoyed every part of it.” from a Serbian Youth Worker

The 12x 26 minute films offer a gentle, thoughtful approach to teaching photography, focused on themes, beauty and meaning. They express admiration for historical works of painting, sculpture and photography and how those fine works of art have informed my picture making*. They ask many questions of the reader, inviting them to think critically about what they do and what they wish to do with a camera.

Whilst making the first 3 films we** adapted the scripts for the accompanying manual with its more detailed information and references. That amount of information is not appropriate for films intended to stir the viewer emotionally as well as intellectually.

The films address understanding the differences between objective and subjective response, between learning about the harm done to one’s work because of generalising about people, places and things, and the profound differences between recording the surface of things and the inner truths of people and situations.

While making the films I came to question why it’s been and continues to be that I see many photographs, often well done, sometimes excelling in craft but frequently leaving me cold, without sensing my heart has been touched, but sensing that there is little poetry in the work. Why, if I am such an advocate and lover of the medium, can I not find interest in the image?

I believe it is because in essence I am more interested in the message and its story-telling qualities than in the medium itself. In my long professional life I have bent the medium to my needs, sometimes foraging into places unknown. It is clear to me that whilst one maybe an excellent stylist or technician, the vast difference between an amateur and a professional is that the former usually makes images of things they come across out of their own concerns and fascinations, but a professional must be able to answer a brief – answer someone else’s needs and wants - handsomely, appropriately and with the client’s message clearly delivered. There are, at the junction between the photographer’s and client’s attitudes, moral, political and financial friction points.

While I have had 5 intersecting photographic/film professions, I left 3 of them because of what for me were worrying moral and political problems which arose from me coming to understand that I could not service the needs of certain sectors of the economy.

The value of art is not only in the artist’s particular works but also in the way the audience may perceive the artist’s way of looking at our troubled world. This is where poetry, beauty, truth and the photographer’s life’s experiences play a role in the creation of meaning. This is where metaphor plays a role in communications with others.

Have a look at the trailer here: PHOTOGRAPHY: Making Meaning.com

*see my biography here.

**we meaning the designer Irina Maria Ganescu, the software engineer and web builder, Marko Stankovic, the critical eyes and supporting hearts of Tina Ellen Lee, Lisa Glybchenko, Joy Uglow, David Glass, Ricky Romain, Tomasz Trzebiatowski (from Frames) and all the others who have read and reacted with support and enthusiasm.

thank you all…