What’s In An Image?

Strange title, strange post.. Well what is in an image? Often taken for granted in todays information/media hungry world we can see thousands of images a day but few really stick with us. Its been my pursuit in the last few years to capture an image that sticks. I’m not there yet, but that’s the fun of the chase. However the more I look critically at what I’m doing, some interesting observations arise. For example, Google ‘iconic images’. You’ll quickly see that the images that have ‘stuck’ in the world aren’t from the latest and greatest digital camera. They are the results of Leica M3’s and Nikon F3’s loaded with Kodak black and white film (for the most part). Monochrome is certainly king which makes sense, colour is distracting if we really want a powerful image. People and faces are also a common denominator. I’m looking at an unopened roll (120) of Tmax 100 as I type this.. Seascapes/landscapes just won’t cut it. You need emotion, just like a good song really. In fact, music and photography have far more in common that most people realise. Either way, I realise my workflow has to change slightly. Which, for an engineer easily distracted by numbers and specifications is easier said than done as lately I have been designing a few accessories for my Nikon Df and Nikonos-V courtesy of 3D printing (stay tuned). So, with some more time needed looking over old black and white images, the challenge of having a person in every picture seems more and more relevant.

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