“In order to see, we must forget the name of the thing we’re
looking at.” - Claude Monet.
Painters, I think, excel at this. Our mind furiously interprets everything we
see, which means it can difficult to discern objects in a two dimensional
space, flattened on an image. When we
observe leading lines, for example, we have “forgotten” what the object are,
and for a moment see only lines.
Geometry divorced of meaning. The
same can be said for color. It’s
surprising what we see when we forget that we’re photographing “Nancy,” and only see
light, shape, and color. There are some
tricks for making this happen.
Shoot RAW plus BW
JPEG. Photographers like Gregory Heisler
advocate for shooting in dual mode, but where your LCD will show you the image
in black and white. I doubt he does it
himself (he shoots primarily with film), but it can be helpful in seeing the
essence of the subject, especially people.
Turn your images
upside down to dodge and burn. This
technique I use frequently when working on important images. Our eyes naturally gravitate to certain
areas-- faces, eyes, smiles, center, or thirds.
These are areas that help the mind interpret the subject and meaning. This natural tendency, though, undermines the
non-interpretative part of our minds. We may not see, for example, that the
subject isn’t the brightest area.
Flipping the image upside down removes meaning from the image and leaves
just light and geometry. I will dodge
and burn the non-people parts of the image upside down; I’ll rotate upright for
individuals.
If the light is
perfect, turn around. This is a
great adage. It isn’t helpful most of
the time, but it’s a good practice because when it is helpful you get something completely outside the box of your
thinking. We tend to narrow our choices
when we pick our angles and decide what is the “right” light. It’s necessary, but it destroys the
possibilities that come from working against our instincts and exploring what
benefits can be found in photographing the “problem” rather than the solution.
“Forgetting the name” of the thing you’re photographing isn’t
just about keeping your options open. It’s
about removing the constraints of meaning.
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