President’s Address

Emotions

We photographers have a difficult task. In one image we have to tell a story, or at least give a hint of a story. Those that work in other media have it easy. Cinematographers use multiple still images, shown quickly, and add sound. Sculptors use different materials for texture and the viewer can view the statue from different angles. We poor photographers do not have these luxuries.

In simple terms a photograph is a two dimensional, one sensory (sight), facsimile of a four dimensional (the 4th dimension being time), five sensory experience. When you look at a photo you can only look, and you can only see what the photographer wanted to include in his or her viewfinder. As a viewer we cannot see the car just out of frame. We do not hear the roar of the aircraft overhead. The warm sun on the photographer’s back does not heat us. We cannot taste the salt in the air and, thankfully, the odors from the trash can are unknown to us.

A good photo has to engage the five senses and add a dimension. Depth (the 3rd dimension) is added or implied through the selective use of focal length, aperture (depth of field) and lighting/ shadows—a relatively easy task. Engaging the five senses is more difficult.

The simplest way to engage the senses is for the photo to have an emotional impact or response in the viewer. This emotional impact will drag up memories and remind the viewer of similar situations. While all the physical senses may not be engaged, those that have seen a photo that has caused the hairs on the back of the neck to be raised or the mouth to water, know the reaction a good image can have on the senses.

As I mentioned above, as the taker of the image, we have the whole experience of the sights, sounds, and smells leading up to the push of the shutter and the events after it. All this forms the memories on how we saw (liked to have seen?) the photograph. Every time we view the photograph we recall these memories and the photo has an emotional impact on us. This may cause us to think our photos are better than they are. Just look at the Thanksgiving snaps of people you don’t know and you will get the idea.

As photographers, if we look at our images too soon after shooting them our judgment on what is a “keeper” or not, can be impaired by our memories of the event. Editing your images a decent time period after taking them means that you can be more impartial on what are good photos or not. Garry Winogrand, a New York street photographer, was known to shoot three rolls of film each day. He would then mark each roll with the lighting conditions they were shot under, and then place the film in a drawer for a few months before developing it. When he died in 1984, he left more than 2,500 rolls of film undeveloped, 6,500 rolls developed but no contact sheets and 3,000 rolls of unexamined contact sheets. That’s over 12,000 rolls of film, 432,000 images taken but unseen.

If Garry Winogrand ONLY shot three rolls of film every day, that is 1,095 rolls a year. With over 12,000 rolls of film unseen, one can only image how old some of the images were.

Achieving an emotional response in the viewer of your photograph is not easy. Shooting huge numbers of images helps in that you will get lucky every now and then. Also, the more you shoot the more you practice. The more you practice the “luckier” you become.

What must a photograph contain to have an emotional impact? If I knew that then I would be a very rich man. One person may view a photograph and feel nothing, while another person is brought to tears. Overuse of a particular style will breed familiarly and lessen the emotional impact on viewers.

There are no rules or formulas that will produce the “perfect” photograph. Not every photo will have an emotional impact. Trying to take a photograph that will affect everyone emotionally will result in no one being affected. For those photos that do result in an emotional impact, the emotions felt by the viewer will vary depending on their life experiences.

As photographers all we can try for is to produce photographs that have an emotional response in the most important person in the world—YOU. If you are pleased with the photo then it is likely someone else will be too.

Tim