Sharpness is overrated. — Keith Carter
I may have mentioned my newly-found favorite photography site already, but it’s worth mentioning again. Through the Art of Photography, I was lead to Keith Carter‘s website and fell very much in love with his style and his attitude. You know I love my Lensbabies and blur, so of course, I agree 100% with Carter.
To me, blur is what moves a photograph from a documentation of reality to an expression of an idea. In other words from a snapshot to art. That’s a pretty broad generalization, but I hope you get my point. While sharpness has it’s place, I prefer to manipulate the scene in front of me in order to direct the viewer to what I think is important or to better express the question that the photograph is the answer too.
What?
This is an idea directly from one of Forbes episodes , but it struck me deeply because it is something that I have always believed. The answers are out there and easy to come by — it is the questions that are difficult and need fine-tuning.
In terms of photography, the photograph is the answer, but can the viewer tell what the question was? That’s going to require a whole lot more practice to master.
Jessica, I like the shot, but your words leave my head dinnlin’ (as Seamus in Trinity would say). I recently figured something out, wrote it on a Post-It Note and attached to the frame of my monitor. It is this: “Art needs time to tell its story. Art needs time to unfold.” I feel like I’ll never have the time to let that happen, so I’ll never have the time truly appreciate art, including yours and the photographers that inspire you. Ugh. It’s frustrating. Most frustrating, perhaps, is that I feel rushed when I’m at the computer. I like to walk away from it (and I try to do it more and more), and let life come at me slowly. For me, books are much more conducive to such goals. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m giving up on trying to understand. I just know that it’s going to take me a long time to get there. (Did I sound even close to coherent just now?)