Designed

I wonder how many of us who pursue photography as an interest or passion have considered turning professional – and by that I mean making it our career or main source of income. Tempted? I guess quite a lot of us may have toyed with that idea at some point.

And apart from the obvious concerns about money, what put you off? For me it would have to be the idea of taking images that are dictated by someone else: working to a brief, for a campaign, or an agency, taking pictures of something for which I have no interest. I couldn’t do it. Every image I capture is triggered by a ‘connection’ with what I see before me. That ‘connection’ has many guises: beauty, colour, texture, scenery, contrast, line, humour, the bizarre, to name a few. Whatever it is, I am ‘attracted’ to what I see. And previously on this bog I have commented that sometimes it is only later that the initial subconscious attraction, that made me want to press the shutter, becomes a conscious one that influences how I ultimately process and develop an image from that initial RAW file. To abandon all that and operate ‘in cold blood’ would require a complete mind shift.

What I connect with changes. Some days I am sure I see things that I wouldn’t on others.

And so in a round about way I come to the point of today’s images. I have found myself increasingly drawn to images that have ‘design’ as their primary feature. What do I mean by that? You may be thinking: that’s just another word for composition. Every image is composed by the photographer but in the images you see here the composing has been – shall we say – shared. Dictated initially by the design work of others that I have chosen to crop and isolate in a way that juxtaposes elements within the frame. Elements that might not seem at first glance to have any intrinsic appeal; but when presented and cropped in a particular way, aided by my pre-decisions on processing, I hope distils images that are stripped down to simple basics that to my eye have an elegance of simplicity : white, black, single colour, line, shape, and juxtaposition.

Maybe this will seem rather contrived to some of you. It can be difficult to explain an emotional attachment to a style of image. I don’t always understand the appeal of some of the modern photography that I see in exhibitions and catalogues, so I can hardly expect others to understand some of my own. One thing is for sure: photography is an ever expanding art form, and photographers will always strive, as they do in all art forms, to say something different through their pursuance of their Art.

I haven’t turned my back on my more traditional photography, but as a person with a restless mind I continually look for something new: new challenges and new ideas. Some may make sense, and some will fall flat.

As always your comments are welcome, particularly on today’s set of images. Does some of what I write ring true for you?

All these were taken in a single hour session at Bicester Village; a designer outlet shopping centre housing about 130 high-end clothing brands. My wife was shopping and I was let loose. I’m glad to report that the damage to the family wallet was minimal!