LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Here's a Thought… #2716 with Brooks Jensen

Fun Is a Medicine

I assume that all of you listening to these commentaries take your photography pretty seriously. You want your photographs to be meaningful, lovely, treasured, valuable. We approach our image making with a serious mindset. Must we? What about fun? Silly? Playful? Not all of our work needs to be momentous. Make something small, fun, light-hearted that you can give away just because it makes everyone smile. Strangely enough, doing so can make your serious work more meaningful.

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LW1518 - The Hard Work of Being an Artist

The minute we pick up a camera and decide we want to make pictures more meaningful than snapshots, we unknowingly embrace the art life. The first challenge is entirely technical and, at least these days, fairly easily mastered. Well, if not mastered, at least doable with reasonable competence. That's when the hard work of being an artist begins.



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You might also be interested in. . .

Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com.

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Here's a Thought… #2715 with Brooks Jensen

The Power of Titles

Titles have such power to steer the viewer in directions we intend. I've often used the example of Dorothea Lange's famous image, Migrant Mother. What if that image was instead titled, Waiting for the Return of the Soldier, for example? What if Weston's Pepper #30 was titled, The Last Pepper, or perhaps, Tina? Words change perceptions, sometimes with a nudge, sometimes with a sledgehammer. A title, even if it is only one word, can make all the difference in how the viewer sees your image.

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Here's a Thought… #2714 with Brooks Jensen

To Know a Photographer

There are so many photographers I think I know because one of their images has become important to me. I'm a fool to think so. People are complicated; photographers are at least as complicated as people. (Ahem.) I've come to believe that in order to know a photographer even a little we need to study at least a couple dozen images or more. Better if this covers at least a decade or so of their creature career.

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Here's a Thought… #2713 with Brooks Jensen

An Excuse to Explore the World

I'm pretty convinced that I don't need to add any more images to my Lightroom assets. I have enough RAW files in my catalogue to keep myself artistically busy and productive for the rest of my life. I just need to mine deeper into what I already have. That will not, however, prevent me from heading out and capturing more. That's because the core of artmaking is exploring life, exploring the world, exploring our responses to experience. Making the art is secondary; curiosity and inquiry are the primary values in the Art Life.

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