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Author Topic: develop ones own style...  (Read 97278 times)

petermfiore

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #20 on: September 18, 2013, 11:21:46 am »

Style is not something you search out. That's fool gold! Style finds you. It's more like your habits glorified. Good or bad. Style finds you  when you work  every day, all day. You push and pull. Sometimes you win and then at times you lose but the journey goes on.  

Peter
« Last Edit: October 11, 2013, 11:08:54 am by petermfiore »
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Rob C

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2013, 02:34:57 pm »

Style is not something you search out. That's fool gold! Style finds you. It's more like your habits glorified. Good or bad. Style finds you when you when you work  every day, all day. You push and pull. Sometimes you win and then at times you lose but the journey goes on. 

Peter



Exactly, it's the journey of your life.

Rob C

Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #22 on: September 18, 2013, 08:54:04 pm »

For now, I'll just say how amused I am that the only response to explicit statements by a professional photographer, who actually has a commercial and artistic career in this decade, that he both crafted a style and then improved that style -- is to ignore him.
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RSL

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #23 on: September 18, 2013, 11:08:42 pm »

Hi Isaac, How about explaining what you mean by "crafting a style." Sounds a lot like throwing a pot or painting a clutch of plastic grapes.
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jjj

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #24 on: September 19, 2013, 06:59:06 am »

For now, I'll just say how amused I am that the only response to explicit statements by a professional photographer, who actually has a commercial and artistic career in this decade, that he both crafted a style and then improved that style -- is to ignore him.
Do you mean Joey L? He had ability /style to start with and then got [technically] better with practice and experience. Nothing new there nor the fact that you should keep working at it. The last idea being the main  point of your rebuttal I thought.
I certainly did not think he got a style simply by craft if that's what you are implying and this is the old Nature Vs Nurture debate.

Not everyone is a retired old codger BTW and when you had a career is of little import to the debate either. My professional/personal work had also developed over the same time as Joey L. But I don't really see that as being particularly relevant or special, the main thing about that time is that it was during a time of rapid photographic upheaval.
What strikes me about Joey L. is that he has an extremely good business head on him, which is what made him so successful. And having that attitude whilst so very young also made him stand out.
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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #25 on: September 19, 2013, 12:24:39 pm »

He had ability /style to start with and then got [technically] better with practice and experience.

He tells you "... I've crafted a style that emphasizes mood and atmosphere..." and goes on to tell you the elements that make up that style. Why don't you believe him?
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jjj

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #26 on: September 19, 2013, 12:54:12 pm »

I think because people are not actually talking about say a specific style here, more about the ability to take good photos in your own way. Which magazine articles and teachers bogusly claim they can teach you. Yes anyone can learn how the mechanics of say how to do low or high key portraits, but that's not really what is being talked about.
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RSL

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #27 on: September 19, 2013, 01:00:47 pm »

Exactly!
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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #28 on: September 19, 2013, 01:40:46 pm »

... but that's not really what is being talked about.

That's not what Joey L is talking about -- he's talking about his personal style.
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jjj

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #29 on: September 19, 2013, 04:33:30 pm »

That's not what Joey L is talking about -- he's talking about his personal style.
And you wonder why nobody pays much attention to some quotes that don't have much to do with the topic at hand.  ::)

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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #30 on: September 19, 2013, 05:04:02 pm »

"the topic at hand"

For years the mantra of developing one's style has been preached to me... He had developed his style and it never changed.

I think that making it a goal to develop a style is just plain foolish. ... identifiable photographic style... your "style?" ... some people do in fact develop a style...

Both developed styles that were as personal as any I've ever seen ... Can you define HCB's "style?"... Ansel's "style"...

etcetera etcetera
« Last Edit: September 19, 2013, 08:17:29 pm by Isaac »
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RSL

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #31 on: September 19, 2013, 05:09:51 pm »

So go ahead, Isaac, explain what there is about an HCB photograph or a Joey L photograph that would tell you it's his "style."
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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #32 on: September 19, 2013, 05:25:26 pm »

So go ahead, Russ, explain what there is about a Garry Winogrand photograph that would tell you it's his "style."

Joey L tells you throughout his book, for example -- "One of the most fascinating features of the Dutch masters' lighting is their technique of turning the shadow side of the subject's face toward the viewer. This produces a more dramatic look with a wide tonal range in the shadows. You'll notice a similar approach throughout my portraiture, particularly my fine art work."
« Last Edit: September 19, 2013, 08:25:22 pm by Isaac »
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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #33 on: September 19, 2013, 05:43:04 pm »

For years the mantra of developing one's style has been preached to me and I want no part of it...


Quote
"Every photographer has a definable style, but I spent at least a decade worrying that I didn't. If someone asked me what my artistic goals were, I would mumble platitudes about capturing my vision of the wilderness and pursuing light. I feared that my diverse work was adrift in an ocean of outdoor photography. The individual pieces had about as much chance of coming together as splinters from a shipwreck joining on their own to form a boat again.
...
After my work began to be published I was surprised when people told me they could often identify it before they saw the credit line. At first I didn't believe them. I thought they were just flattering me. I gained some insight into how a style emerges when I saw the shoots of several well-known photographers being edited at National Geographic. I knew the hallmarks of their various styles, but in their raw film, as in mine, inconsistent work greatly outnumbered pictures with strong vision. Yet after the final edit, each photographer had created key images that unmistakably showed a unique way of seeing."

"In Search of Style" in "Galen Rowell's Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography" 1993 page 14
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jjj

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #34 on: September 19, 2013, 06:01:28 pm »

How to recognise a painter's work.
The last one made me LOL.
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RSL

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #35 on: September 19, 2013, 08:46:24 pm »

So go ahead, Russ, explain what there is about a Garry Winogrand photograph that would tell you it's his "style."

Joey L tells you throughout his book, for example -- "One of the most fascinating features of the Dutch masters' lighting is their technique of turning the shadow side of the subject's face toward the viewer. This produces a more dramatic look with a wide tonal range in the shadows. You'll notice a similar approach throughout my portraiture, particularly my fine art work."

That's exactly my point, Isaac. If you were reading more carefully you'd know I can't explain what there is about a Winogrand photograph that would tell me it's his style, because there isn't anything. And the same thing's true of Joey L's work, even though he's trying to copy the Dutch masters. Lots of photographers do that, and lots of painters do that. It doesn't constitute a "style."
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #36 on: September 19, 2013, 09:00:11 pm »

That's exactly my point, Isaac. If you were reading more carefully you'd know I can't explain what there is about a Winogrand photograph that would tell me it's his style, because there isn't anything.

I'm quite happy to accept that you personally are incapable of distinguishing a Gary Winogrand photograph from a Don McCullin or Bill Brandt or ... a Galen Rowell from a David Meunch ...

I'm also quite happy to accept that when Galen Rowell writes "I knew the hallmarks of their various styles", he did.


If you were reading more carefully you'd know there was no suggestion that one technique constituted Joey L's style -- it was clearly an example.
 
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RSL

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #37 on: September 19, 2013, 09:47:26 pm »

Okay, Isaac. I'll see if I can come up with a picture by a famous photographer that's not well known. We'll see if you can identify the photographer by his "style."
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jjj

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #38 on: September 20, 2013, 05:40:35 am »

Joey L tells you throughout his book, for example -- "One of the most fascinating features of the Dutch masters' lighting is their technique of turning the shadow side of the subject's face toward the viewer. This produces a more dramatic look with a wide tonal range in the shadows. You'll notice a similar approach throughout my portraiture, particularly my fine art work."
Though, if there's any one thing that is signature to Joey L., it is that he tends to overexpose the key light and not in a nice way. Simply looks like his light meter was broken a lot of the time.
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Isaac

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Re: develop ones own style...
« Reply #39 on: September 20, 2013, 12:45:23 pm »

Okay, Isaac. I'll see if I can come up with a picture by a famous photographer that's not well known. We'll see if you can identify the photographer by his "style."

Which would show that you can find a photographer without a distinctive style, or a photograph not in the photographer's style.

Just ask Rob C. if he can tell a Don McCullin landscape from an Ansel Adams landscape; a Joey L portrait from an anton corbijn.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2013, 12:51:59 pm by Isaac »
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