As photographers we are drawn to light and the shape of things. We compose images as we think they might be in our heads and then with our cameras. How many times have we looked at our images and said to ourselves that is not what I saw, that is not what I felt? Becoming a sensitized observer means more than passive seeing––it means entering into a relationship and engagement with the things we see. Observation is experiencing what we see and translating that experience through the words and images that come to us. Our newspapers, television screens, websites, magazines and books are flooded with such icons of depravity and horror. Observation is part of a process of perception which engages all of your senses, sound, smell, taste, touch, and sight. When you acquire the skills of an observer you will also learn the value of waiting and anticipation. This is important to remember because there are no easy ways to learn how to be careful observers of the world around us. There is no mathematical formula, master plan, blue print or recipe for learning how to see and experience the things we choose to see. Observation begins with both subconscious and conscious states of begin. We enter a space, connect with, pay attention to, and open ourselves to the hidden dramas of life that otherwise we let slip past us. In the chaos and confusion of life we are trained from an early age on to focus almost entirely on the outcome of our efforts. No pain no gain. Life in our advanced capitalist consumer-centric society is measured in outcomes: material possessions, wealth, class, status, highest level of education attained, etc. With so much emphasis on producing outcomes in our art or in our daily life we have lost the ability to clearly discern the quality of incomes. We might refer to “incomes” as all those subtle and understated attributes which contribute to the outcomes we produce.
Observation helps us explore and evaluate the things we are drawn to. As photographers we are moved by an array of ways of knowing the world and experiencing it. We place ourselves in the path of the present to make sense of the past and to glimpse the future. We become aware of space and time in an attempt to capture it, fix it, brand it, and preserve it. This is what an image does––it holds time and space in an illusionary dimension of the two as if it were somehow real. Beneath the surface of this temporal spatial relationship a continuum emerges through our memory of the likeness we view before us. Observation is a skill we must learn if we want to engage in the world beyond the mere looking at it through a lens.
The images we create must arise through observation and contemplation. Many, many times we fail to capture what we believe to be the essence, understanding, or truth of what we observe through photography on the first attempt. Perhaps this is because what we looking at first, what we glimpse is only a suggestion of something deeper, more profound and more meaningful.
Photo credit: Matt Black
In the work of Matt Black is drawntoward the subtle juxtapositions of forms -- all the activities that are unfolding in the frame. Like other documentary photographers, Black utilizes the scene to establish a sense of space. But there are also careful choices -- in this case, there is the centering of the Teletubbie doll on the post framed by the rest of a very busy world.In a similar way, Black's photography reminds of the gritty work of Danny Lyons or Bruce Davidson.
Davidson sums up his vision this way: "If I am looking for a story at all, it is in my relationship to the subject -- the story that tells me, rather than that I tell."
At the same time, Jim Henman contends:
“We experience the world through filters that have a profound effect on how we feel. These filters are made up of our underlying assumptions and beliefs about reality, our attitudes toward ourselves and others, our past experiences, our current expectations and how we process all of this information."
”The perceptual filters we use to interpret an image may also be deeply connected to the store of memories we call upon when seeing." In the process of viewing, memories and experiences are recalled and compared to the new object. Ultimately, an intimate image breaks through the barriers of personal prejudice, and judgment by connecting to memories or universal feelings we hold inside ourselves. Psychologist Joel Bennett observes, “A relationship has meaning when seen and lived in a broader temporal context.” Bennett suggests people experience time multi-dimensionally through the past, presence, and future. The feelings of intimacy evoked in an image, then, help to provide a broader context in which we experience life. In this way, the photographer is challenged to create pictures that resonate on a higher level -- one that connects with a viewer’s needs and desires beyond a informational context.
What technical, compositional, and content considerations are needed for understanding how intimate images are created?
First and foremost, the intensity and direction of light becomes a dynamic factor in evoking feelings in an image. Softer and indirect light may evoke empathy in viewing an image. When we are drawn into a frame through the use of softer more painterly tones, the possibility of creating stronger connections with the needs, feelings, problems, and views of others emerges.
This does not mean, however, that is not possible to have intimate images with hard and direct light, but the difference may be more the equivalent of a whisper over a shout or scream. Ultimately, the relationship between the subject and the light captured in a frame becomes increasingly more critical in the ability to produce empathic and intimate images.
Photo Credit: Dennis Dunleavy (1978)
