ku # 715 ~ feeling it
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 10:41AM 
Water below beaver dam ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
You don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph. ~ Jay Dusard
For those not in the know, I have spent a great of my professional life, in addition to my commercial photography career, as a graphic designer / art director / creative director. For those not in the know about such things, design plays a large role when working in those capacities.
I came to the field of design well after I started making pictures for commerce. What I discovered was that my "feel" for design in making pictures, the use of space on a 2D surface, served me very well in the art and craft of graphic design which, essentially, is the use of space on a 2D surface.
All of that said, fast forward to a few years ago when I was showing my "fine art" pictures to a gallery director. After viewing about 10 of my pictures, he paused for a moment and then asked, "Are you a graphic designer?" Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. And, as it has turned out (and under similar circumstances), I have been asked the same question again on more than one occasion.
I mention this because, pursuant to my desire / plan to conduct a couple Picture Making Chautauqua, I am still not certain that the "feel" for "you don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph" can be taught.
It is believed that one can be taught to understand art better, but not necessarily so to "feel" it better. Quite simply, if it doesn't speak to some people, then it doesn't. IMO and in my experience, the same can be said about "design".
That said, I'm not going to let that notion keep from trying to help others with the concept of "you don't compose a photograph; you design a photograph".
Reader Comments (3)
I've seen the Dusard statement in Lenswork and I have to say I don't have any idea what he's talking about. (Ok, now that I've written what follows maybe the preceding statement is over the top). Frankly it comes off as a crypto-subtle distinction in the usage of the key words: design and compose. I first design a piece of art, then I compose it?!. And if I don't design it then the composition sucks? Or you could say that Miles Davis designed 'Kind of Blue' in so far as he laid out the chord structures that he wanted and then the piece was composed by the group of the fly. I think we need to do a little work here to clarify.
I learned design in design school. This notion that you either have it or you don't bugs me. It's like that dim witted old idea that you can't be taught to draw. Intuition , in these areas, comes from expertise, expertise does not come from intuition. See Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt for an explanation of the Dryfus model of skill acquisition, or Wikipedia for a quick outline. The problem in teaching design is knowing what knowledge and skills to teach and how to teach them. If you learned it through trial and error it would be very hard to lead someone through a good learning pattern because you have no idea what your learning pattern was.
I don't think Dennis is over the top at all regarding the the Dusard quote. I'm going to disagree with Dusard and say no, you don't design photos, you choreograph them — when you're not constructing them, that it. What difference does any of it make? It's semantic masturbation, pure an simple.
And now for some more…
I propose that the reason a "feel" for art or design can't be taught isn't because the student is incapable of learning or otherwise unreceptive, but rather that the teacher has not figured out what he or she is doing when making art. It's the teacher's job to figure out what they mean in concrete terms when they say "feel." Obviously it is difficult and it accounts for the dearth of teachers who can produce creative students.
I remember hearing a story about a conductor (sadly I can't remember who) trying to get the violin section to play a passage in Brahms Symphony to his liking. He was imploring them to no avail with poetic metaphors about heroism and love when the concertmaster finally turned to his fellow violinists and said, "What he means is that we should begin on the up-bow, place a stronger accent on the second beat, then diminuendo gradually through the phrase."
The only thing you can really do it give students the tools and inspire them to want to use and explore them. Trying to impart vague ideas of 'feel' are only going frustrate students unless you can spell out exactly what you mean.