Establishing a Photographic Style
"Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others." Orson Welles
Photographic style is one’s consistent
photographic visualization for approaching their image creation. It generally evolves over time and from lots of experimentation and practice. It also has a great deal to do with each individual artist’s
personality, feelings, life experiences, and passion. A photographic style can even vary within the same photographer depending on the
different types of photography one creates, but choosing a subject matter to photograph is not the same thing as developing a style. When putting
together a body of work, photographic style affects every aspect of the
creative process, from capturing images to post production to final
presentation. It is what also
creates unity within the body of work.
A photographic style is NOT necessarily WHAT you shoot, but HOW
you shoot it! It is all about HOW the
photographer approaches the subject and it is an expression of their technique. Again, this emphasizes the importance
of a concept. That is, knowing
what you want to communicate about your subjects beforehand, so that your style can begin to synthesize as you make conscious decisions about your approach.
Photographic style cannot be defined by one word or term. Rather it is an expression of your photographic vision and a culmination of the choices you make in your approach to photographing your subject(s). Photographic style starts off by answering basic questions like "what type of equipment will I need?", "what will the subject matter be of this particular body of work?", "do I need to plan my shoot in advance or is it more spontaneous?" and "should I use a tripod or handhold my camera?". As you begin to self-analyze a bit more when asking yourself important questions about WHY you are photographing this particular subject and WHAT it is about that subject that you want to express, your photographic style becomes more integrated as you experiment and fuse technique, craft, and vision into your approach. As you make more decisions about these aspects, you begin to answer more intermediate questions like, "is it better to express this subject in color or in B&W?", "what sort of compositional elements and framing will be important in how I want to express my message and simultaneously express my vision?", "what type of lighting will express the mood of my message?", and "what sort of post processing, if any will be needed to create or enhance my vision?". As you study your subject matter more, experiment with style choices (try new things!), and as you practice and shoot and practice and shoot and practice and shoot, overtime you fine tune your photographic style and it becomes a consistent presence to your body of work. When this occurs, you can then begin to answer advanced questions such as, "what meaning and significance do I deem is important about this work I'm creating?", "what final presentation do I want to use so that my viewers can experience my images?", and "how does this work relate to my personal background, personality and life experiences?". Of course there are many more beginning, intermediate and advanced questions a person can ask themselves that relate to the development of photographic style. The important aspect of this process is that you are making conscious choices so that you are able to create a cohesive body of work that has integrity by balancing all of the "3 C's". Being able to answer these types of questions will also help you explain, discuss and write about your work. Through the formation and synthesis of your photographic style you can expose your unique photographic vision and your images can become a reflection of your soul.
Now that we have established what a photographic style is I want to teach you a little more about art theory, more specifically the topic of genres. A genre is a word used to describe different art movements, which are categories of different style types of artwork defined during a period of time. Examples of different art genres that you may know are Surrealism, Impressionism or Abstract Expressionism. Photography has genres as well. The Pictorialist movement was one of the first established movements that was defined and can be examined by their photographic style or approach to shooting their portraits. The portraits were often staged using elaborate props and sets or locations, and the mood and visual techniques were defined by the use of soft lenses and diffusion filters to give a soft, poetic look. One of the most famous Pictorialists is Julia Margaret Cameron. Genre and photographic style then can be looked at as interrelational. As a person's photographic style becomes defined, often their work then relates to a specific genre, wether they have made a conscious decision to study this genre or not. I would like to present to you a few different examples of photography genres/styles and photographers that have worked within a particular given genre fto better your understanding of these photographic art theories.
Documentary- (used to chronicle significant and historical things or events), where the photographer attempts to remain truthful and objective. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. Ex. Dorthea Lange, Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Nickel.
Narrative Tableaux- (French for “living picture”)- (staged photography) the visual telling of stories, usually based on fantasy. It began as far back as with Julia Margaret Cameron, and was based on recreating scenes from famous paintings. Ex. Cindy Sherman, Dan Overturf.
Film Noir- a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Ex. Annie Leibovitz created a series in this style called “Killers Kill, Dead Men Die.”
Photographic style cannot be defined by one word or term. Rather it is an expression of your photographic vision and a culmination of the choices you make in your approach to photographing your subject(s). Photographic style starts off by answering basic questions like "what type of equipment will I need?", "what will the subject matter be of this particular body of work?", "do I need to plan my shoot in advance or is it more spontaneous?" and "should I use a tripod or handhold my camera?". As you begin to self-analyze a bit more when asking yourself important questions about WHY you are photographing this particular subject and WHAT it is about that subject that you want to express, your photographic style becomes more integrated as you experiment and fuse technique, craft, and vision into your approach. As you make more decisions about these aspects, you begin to answer more intermediate questions like, "is it better to express this subject in color or in B&W?", "what sort of compositional elements and framing will be important in how I want to express my message and simultaneously express my vision?", "what type of lighting will express the mood of my message?", and "what sort of post processing, if any will be needed to create or enhance my vision?". As you study your subject matter more, experiment with style choices (try new things!), and as you practice and shoot and practice and shoot and practice and shoot, overtime you fine tune your photographic style and it becomes a consistent presence to your body of work. When this occurs, you can then begin to answer advanced questions such as, "what meaning and significance do I deem is important about this work I'm creating?", "what final presentation do I want to use so that my viewers can experience my images?", and "how does this work relate to my personal background, personality and life experiences?". Of course there are many more beginning, intermediate and advanced questions a person can ask themselves that relate to the development of photographic style. The important aspect of this process is that you are making conscious choices so that you are able to create a cohesive body of work that has integrity by balancing all of the "3 C's". Being able to answer these types of questions will also help you explain, discuss and write about your work. Through the formation and synthesis of your photographic style you can expose your unique photographic vision and your images can become a reflection of your soul.
Now that we have established what a photographic style is I want to teach you a little more about art theory, more specifically the topic of genres. A genre is a word used to describe different art movements, which are categories of different style types of artwork defined during a period of time. Examples of different art genres that you may know are Surrealism, Impressionism or Abstract Expressionism. Photography has genres as well. The Pictorialist movement was one of the first established movements that was defined and can be examined by their photographic style or approach to shooting their portraits. The portraits were often staged using elaborate props and sets or locations, and the mood and visual techniques were defined by the use of soft lenses and diffusion filters to give a soft, poetic look. One of the most famous Pictorialists is Julia Margaret Cameron. Genre and photographic style then can be looked at as interrelational. As a person's photographic style becomes defined, often their work then relates to a specific genre, wether they have made a conscious decision to study this genre or not. I would like to present to you a few different examples of photography genres/styles and photographers that have worked within a particular given genre fto better your understanding of these photographic art theories.
Documentary- (used to chronicle significant and historical things or events), where the photographer attempts to remain truthful and objective. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. Ex. Dorthea Lange, Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Nickel.
Narrative Tableaux- (French for “living picture”)- (staged photography) the visual telling of stories, usually based on fantasy. It began as far back as with Julia Margaret Cameron, and was based on recreating scenes from famous paintings. Ex. Cindy Sherman, Dan Overturf.
Film Noir- a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Ex. Annie Leibovitz created a series in this style called “Killers Kill, Dead Men Die.”