[Leica] Thanks to BD and John Szarkowski

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

To each his or her own, Feli. It can of course be argued that by
studying the work of various photographers one absorbs the "rules"
without formally studying them. As to Dave Mason's using triangles in
his series of portraits - one may use triangles, or divide the image
into thirds without knowing or thinking about rules; doing those things
may simply be visually appealing. :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Feli
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 2:48 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Thanks to BD and John Szarkowski


I don't know B.D. There certainly is something to be said for learning 
the rules first,
so you can brake them later on. As crazy and far out as lets say some 
of the early surrealist /
expressionist work is, it is the twisting, expansion and reinvention of 
the traditional rules
under the pretense of abandoning them, that makes that stuff great and 
a lot of the
current stuff crap.


On Feb 20, 2005, at 9:38 AM, B. D. Colen wrote:

> Nope. I honestly don't see the point in all the 1/3rds, triangles, 
> etc. Learning how to control exposure? Sure. Learning about depth of 
> field and the difference in lens perspectives? Sure. But compositional

> "rules" etc? No way.

> What the "rules" produce is, by and large, mediocre formalism. ;-)

I don't know B.D. There certainly is something to be said for learning 
the rules first,
so you can brake them later on. As crazy and far out as lets say some 
of the early surrealist /
expressionist work is; it is the twisting, expansion and reinvention of 
the traditional rules
under the pretense of abandoning them, that makes that stuff great and 
a lot of the
current stuff crap. It's actually more difficult to break the rules and 
create something
different, without it just turning in to gibberish, than most people 
can imagine. But to
do so successfully you need a reference point, i.e. 'the rules'.


> Look, I make no claim to be a great photographer - or teacher. And I 
> really do know my limitations, and they are, as they say, legion. But 
> I think that I am reasonably good. And I have never taken a single 
> course; never read a photo text book - other than to look something 
> up; never studied "the rules." I have spent endless hours soaking up 
> the work of photographers whose eye and soul I admire; I have spent 
> endless hours with the work of photographers whose eyes I think are 
> blind and whose souls are blank. And I have spent endless hours 
> shooting.

Maybe you are just a 'natural'?
;-)


feli

________________________________________________________
feli2@earthlink.net                     2 + 2 = 4
www.elanphotos.com

_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information