why does photography have rules?

[Herschel Mair <herschelmair@xxxxxxxxx>]

Devil's advocate here...

Photography is the only art form in which people still expect the artist to previsualize the final result in some way.

 

So if they get a good piece of work they didn't expect, some say it's "lucky"

 

Great painters don't start out with a clear idea of the finished work (Flemish masrers with Camera lucida aside perhaps)

 

It's all hit and miss. The work changes throughout its plastic stage and in the end it's a product pf all the thoughts and changes of ideas that the artist went through as he applied and re-applied paint to the canvas.

 

It's a creative maleable process.

 

Why are there so many rules attached to photography.?

 

Mark Blackwell <mblackwell1958@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well my thoughts are as follows

Technique number one  Photograph a number of rolls in a small area that the student knows very well.  It is similar to the 100 photos of a manhole cover someone mentioned earlier. The back yard of the student is often what I use.  Its close and known so well that the natural reaction is what is back there of which I can get a picture and it forces one to look at the familiar in a different light.

Number 2  A single studio strobe and have the student take a picture of a subject through out at least 180 degrees straight from a front light to a back light and they get to see first hand  It seems to create an understanding of how the light position and shadows work together.

Number 3  Use three rolls of a film that you have never used before.  Then come back and be ready to explain if you liked it or didn't and why?  What uses would you consider putting this film to in the future?  What would you different if you had to use the same 3 rolls of film again in the same conditions.

I personally find that the technical issues that need to be covered will usually come out in the creative assignments.  The creative may not come up in a technical assignment.

---

Got a little couch potato?
Check out fun summer activities for kids.

Herschel Mair
Head of the Department of Photography,

Higher College of Technology
Muscat
Sultanate of Oman

Adobe Certified instructor

 

+ (986) 99899 673

 

www.herschelmair.com

---

Don't be flakey. Get Yahoo! Mail for Mobile and 
always stay connected to friends.