Approaching Photography

Paul Hill

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000182507
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

Fully updated and revised, this seminal book explains and illustrates what photographs are, how they were made and used in the past and, more particularly, what their place is in the creative arts and visual communications world of today.

Paul Hill looks at photographs as modes of expression and explores the diversity of approaches taken when creating photographs and what these mean for a photographer's practice and purpose. It emphasises the importance of contextualisation to the understanding of the medium, diving into the ideas behind the images and how the camera transforms and influences how we see the world. With an impressive collection of 200 full colour images from professional practitioners and artists, it invites us to consider the foundations of photography's past and the digital revolution's impact on the creation and dissemination of photographs today.

Essential reading for all students of photography, it is an invaluable guide for those who want to make a career in photography, covering most areas of photographic practice from photojournalism to fine art to personal essay.

CHAPTER ONE
SEEING AND THINKING PHOTOGRAPHICALLY

READING PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs surround us nearly all the time, but we rarely consider that they may have to be read closely before they can be understood. Neither does the medium’s ubiquity mean that it is a successful universal communicator – a sort of visual lingua franca. Despite what we are often told, photographs do not ‘speak for themselves’. Photography should be considered as a language, which means that its grammar and its syntax have to be learned before the medium can be fully explored and employed by the photographer.

Our ability to communicate, as well as our level of understanding, bear a direct relationship to our cultural, social and educational background. These circumstances inevitably affect you when looking at your own and other photographers’ work. It is also inevitable that you are going to be influenced most of all – as a photographer – by existing photographs that you have seen. Unfortunately, this can often lead to the frustrating feeling that ‘it’s all been done before’; but it hasn’t by you, and that is an important thing to remember.

There is a tendency to relate the contents of a photograph to your own experience and knowledge, but this is true of most things, not just photography. For example, a photograph of the inside of an artery or an intestine may look to you like a mine shaft or a road tunnel, not the inside of a part of the human body. This example is not just related to your personal experience: it also highlights the medium’s inherent ambiguity. This makes it a fascinating, but challenging, subject to study. You will find out that all is not what it seems in the world of photography.

PRE-VISUALISATION AND CAMERA VISION

Seeing and thinking photographically are different from our normal visual and intellectual processes, so it is important to learn to ‘pre-visualise’. You soon realise that the camera provides a view of the world unlike the one produced by the human optical system. It is, therefore, imperative to become familiar with how a camera ‘sees’.

Also, when you take a photograph, one of the things you do is ‘still’ a moment of time and a segment of space in front of the lens. This act of ‘stilling’ is worth further consideration.

Most of us have had to sit still and sketch something at one time or other in our lives. The result may not always have conformed to a standard idea of good draughtsmanship, but the discipline of stilling yourself for a length of time to look closely at an object almost certainly has a beneficial effect. You are now ‘in the moment’, concentrating on what you are viewing and isolating yourself from much of the world around you. You are probably not aware of it, but you are analysing the structure of the object and the effect light is having on it. You are also making marks.

This, in a very general sense, is what you do when making photographs. Once the subject has been chosen, the next step is the two-dimensional orchestration of the elements that make it up – i.e. pre-visualisation. This is true in photography as well as in drawing.

TIME STILLED

Cameras, of course, have the capacity to ‘freeze’ time and movement, but even when aiming for a candid, caught-on-the-wing picture, you have to be aware of what you are including in the photograph. By placing the camera on a tripod, the process of making photographs becomes a more contemplative and deliberate act of stilling. However, most people adopt an intuitive, instantaneous approach that tends to delay the contemplation of subject and composition until after the camera has automatically ‘frozen’ the situation. A closer examination of the image takes place when this recorded information is viewed. This is referred to as post-visualisation.

These photographs show how the camera can ‘freeze’ a fleeting moment. A couple embrace lovingly even though they are sheltering from the rain. This candid, observational approach to the medium can, of course, be used in more divisive ways (e.g. by tabloids and for surveillance), but this show of tenderness on a foul day is what the photographer quickly spotted and realised would make a bittersweet image. The umbrella, not the embrace, draws the eye first, but the combination makes the picture work because it tells the story without the need for any text. The unusual will always engage with an audience, especially when conventions are subverted. The wedding photographer primed the couple with a bottle of champagne so they could toast each other, but did not expect the bride to take a swig from it directly in front of this idyllic setting. In nearly all aspects of human activity, unexpected events and actions will always be what is remembered.
PAUL HILL

THE FRAME

Photography is a very subjective medium despite the apparently objective way it appears to represent what is before the camera. The photographer, after all, controls when the exposure is made, how much light falls on the image sensor (or film) and, most importantly, what is included in the picture. The latter is defined by what you frame within the perimeter of the viewfinder.

It might prove an interesting exercise to hold a picture frame out in front of you. Then, imagine that everything you have framed becomes two-dimensional. This is the sort of transposition you have to make when taking photographs. What happens outside the frame may be important too, but once the photograph has been taken you can only speculate upon that.

Similarly, the photographer cannot photograph what is not there, but the viewer may have to consider what the photographer leads them to believe is happening in the picture. Your reading of a photograph is usually governed by what you want to see in it; in other words, what your cultural and educational background dictates is ‘there’ in the picture. We all have preconceptions and prejudices, so the tendency to see what we want to see in a picture can be overwhelming. Freeing oneself from that intellectual and social conditioning is hard, but is, consciously or not, one of the reasons why you want to study this medium.

Photographers can never foretell what other people will make of their images, but they have to be conscious of what they are doing and the effects their photographs can have. Remember that the photographer can choose which part of the world to ‘still’ forever, whether it is the expression on a person’s face or a certain section of a particular landscape. This is a great responsibility, especially when the results are for public consumption.

When you take a photograph, you isolate a segment of the world as if you were placing a frame over the part that interests you. Framing a photograph is a subjective act because you include what you want and exclude what you consider unnecessary. The frame of the viewfinder and the type of lens used dictate what you see photographically. It is now possible to enhance the pre-visualisation stage with Live View on digital single lens reflex (DLSR) and mirrorless cameras.
PAUL HILL

LENSES AND ANGLES

The frame gives a discipline to work within, but it should not intimidate. To achieve greater freedom of vision, try using different prime lenses, or a zoom lens with a range of different focal lengths, from wide-angle to telephoto (e.g. 24mm–70mm on DSLR cameras). Use a wide-angle lens for a wider (broader and extended) field of vision, or a longer focal length if you want to isolate or compress things in the middle or far distance. But while it is natural to test different lenses and focal lengths in order to explore the options available, be aware that distortion and overt gimmickry can occur and get in the way of the idea you are trying to convey in an image.

Even a standard lens (usually 50mm on a 35mm camera) can escape its seeming conservatism if you shoot from different angles of view, such as looking up or down. Don’t put the camera to your eye all the time; put it on the ground or hold it above your head. There is no law that says the world should be seen from a level between five and six feet above the ground.

If you want to widen your field of vision, you should use a wide-angle lens. Among other things, this gives the picture a feeling of space and de...