Met and had dinner with my friend Larry tonight he gave me a wonderful limited edition "Pentimento" book about Burtynsky's ship breaking photos in Bangladesh. We talked about many things but the thing that stood out of me today was Larry's talk about the importance of capturing that special moment in your pictures. A good picture turning into a great picture has something special that elevates it past the ordinary, something that creates that unique and powerful moment. The trick is finding that moment, some photographers like Sebastiao Salgado or Henri Cartier-Bresson capture it their whole lives so their is skill to it not just luck. You need to be in the right place, the visual place at the right time but to capture that moment you need to train yourself, you need to see the moment coming and work towards it. When I am in the dump in October, I am going to try and concentrate less on the poverty and more on the special, the magical visual moments within these peoples lives. I still want to focus on their humanity, the human story but I am also going to look for that magic mili second. Creating strong pictures is not only about composition, subject matter and lighting there must be a search for whats special, you need to use great technique but then reach beyond it and get to that all powerful special moment in time.
Anyway as always dinners with Larry are intellectually stimulating and challenging as well as a bit goofy and fun!
One of Larry's favourite Salgado special (decisive) moment photographs.
Anyway as always dinners with Larry are intellectually stimulating and challenging as well as a bit goofy and fun!
One of Larry's favourite Salgado special (decisive) moment photographs.
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| Sebastiao Salgado |
