Question

Edward weston once said, “ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer's ability to understand his fellow man.” what did he mean by this? what do photographers need to understand about others to be successful in capturing people in a photograph? do you agree or disagree with weston’s sentiment?

Answer 1

you have to have an understanding of the concept of 'art'. To me, art is showing something to someone in a new way. A farmer sees a painter has set up his easel on the edge of the road and is painting a picture of the farmer's barn. The farmer looks over the painter's shoulder and says 'Wow, I never realized that barn was so pretty!' The artist is showing the farmer a barn he's seen every day of his life, but he's never seen it in that way. That's the purpose of art (in my view).

A photograph is just another way of showing someone something. It's useful, or at least very interesting, to understand how another person sees it. The artist might be trying to get a message across and he wonders of the viewer of the picture got it. Or there might be things about the picture that the artist didn't even realize, because he was thinking about something else.

I took a photography course in college, and of course there was a book to read, an anthology of essays written by various photographers over the last century and a half. The forward of the book made it clear that the editor didn't believe there was a whole lot to be learned by READING about photography. If you could explain a photograph entirely in words, the photograph itself is useless! Its like the old saying (I don't know where it came from): Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

But having other people critique your photographs can be very useful, especially when you're just starting out. You want to know how well you're sharing your vision. Are you making things too obvious? Are you just repeating a cliche? Do your photographs make people smile, or wonder, or inspire yearnings in them?

Photography is a -language-. It's meant to -say- things. In order to use it to communicate, you need to have some understanding of how your photos are seen by others, that's what Weston meant about understanding your fellow man.