“Suicide among birds. First feeling will be the freedom, then fear… Whatever, i always want to fly anyway…”
Amazingly emotion packed! Wow great piece. This is a composition created by multiple images. Just a beautiful emotion-evoking picture. I wish for my photos to conjure such high level of feelings.
Madsky’s DeviantArt Page
the above were projects for my creative advertising 400-some odd level class. all the artwork except the og james dean shot is mine, and unfortunately as is the copy (seriously don’t read it, its straight nasty). looking back to those years of my college life, i am still impressed with my creativity in terms of layout design and photo editing. but the persuasion factor as an ad is complete rubbish. the queen would be saddened. my words and sentences do not show veteran marksmanship, instead it shows lack of focus and ramblings that have very high mileage on the gallon. /// during my brief tenure at publicis, i would look over oral-b print ads from an account management pov and constantly submerge myself in ad jargon. communication ideas, objectives, ways-in, RTB (reason to believe – yeah i know!)… these were all methods of critiquing ads and keeping ourselves accountable for doing the job well. in the end i felt like i was looking at print ads with robocop/terminator vision, homing in on key points and quickly scanning for errors that were not true to the brief. idea > concept > execution. sub-points: communication points of the product benefits + an infinite amount of subconscious factors. get the write-off from two or three superiors. get the “i’m gonna murder you” look from the creatives after telling them that revisions are required. get all this in front of the client. client must say great, not okay but great. if not then repeat. /// anyways back to what i was saying. i failed as a creative not because my creativity was lacking. i failed because when you start out doing something new and experience is something you don’t have a lot of, i guess following direction, studying the craft and practicing & understanding, even at the basic textbook level, is pertinent to your rookie success. so yea…. seriously don’t read the copy. iced tea in front of a toilet? REALLY????
Le Petit Parisien
Willy Ronis
Paris 1952
last year reading the post (as in the washington post), i came upon a full page spread with a picture in the center that captured me in fascination. The picture was so simple and candid, a french boy running, caught in mid-pace, in the streets of paris with a nice baguette in his arms. what a simple picture i thought, yet it brought out a full set of emotions in me and i couldn’t help but just enjoy this little picture for a bit longer.
i can explain visually why this picture is so captivating, knowingly to the viewer or not there are lots of elements going on that gives due to a great composition (rule of thirds, contrasts, the offset of the baguette naturally directing your eyes to the boy, etc. etc. [clearly i've forgotten a lot of photography lingo]).
but i think there is much more that is in play, apart from a perfect visual composition, and that thing is what completes the viewing experience. that thing is what creates the emotional tie that lasts much longer than the memory of the actual visual image. many times you’ll forget exactly what the picture was like, but you will remember exactly what emotions it brought out within.
so, this thing i mentioned is not something i really know how to put in detail. for this picture specifically, there’s a few trains of thought that i think leads to that, well… thing.
1. the boy himself – creating a heart for the subject
2. the era/time of the actual photo – there’s a strange tingly feeling when one comes into contact with something that is much older than they are, this picture was captured in 1952
3. direct correlation with the subject
now believe it or not, the above list of points are all conscious/subconscious dialogues the viewer has with themselves. there’s probably a few other ‘ways-in’ as a matter of fact. it might take a nanosecond or 10 minutes, but nonetheless this discussion does occur and this is what leads to the creation of the thing.
this is the reason why i tend to shoot portrait photography, candid or not (or fake candid i suppose), its easiest for me to develop and communicate that thing to viewers. don’t get me wrong, all categories of photography can exude their own sense of thing. a viewer can get just as much out of a picture of architecture, nature, science, editorial, experimental artistic medium (i made this one up), & etc.!
great visual composition + the thing (again whatever that may be) = a wonderful memorable picture
