Artistic Vision

I recently saw a series of posts in a social media group that was discussing pretentious comments of others (which was somewhat humorous because the post was somewhat pretentious) and a second, by a different person, that talked about another photographer proclaiming to a group that there “was nothing to see” about a scene. Social media can be a tough place unless you can wade through the crap, but that isn’t really what I want to discuss.

In the first instance where the author posted about some members becoming pretentious, my first thought is, don’t become what it is you’re complaining about. It is very easy to come across improperly especially in the written word. I can attest to that as I have done that, hopefully, it is something that I am getting better at avoiding.

In the second instance where the discussion was about “nothing to see here” what comes to my mind is that we sometimes search so hard to “find a scene” to photograph that we miss a photograph. The photograph that was being discussed was of power lines and poles in front of a blue and yellow sunset sky. The power lines and poles were nearly silhouettes. While it may not have been an award winner I did find it a compelling image, but what was even more telling were some of the comments. One commenter stated, basically, yeah it’s alright just don’t try to sell it. At this point, I recalled seeing photographs displayed in art museums with a much similar subject. This is really the topic of this post. Artistic vision is being able to see something that tells a story or relates an emotion or experience. Often, it is a scene that others may overlook. Sometimes it is best to stop, observe, think, and compose.