picture window # 48 ~ it was a sunny day
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 09:11AM 
Doctor's exam room / playground ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenIMO, one of the greatest books ever written, re: art, is The Art Spirit by the teacher/artist Robert Henri. If I had to summarize Henri's theme it would be this -
Artist, know thyself, or, be actively engaged in getting to know thyself. From knowing thyself will come the idea(s) from which your voice/vision will spring. And it is the idea that will drive the invention of all you need to know (technique) to express it.
Henri repeatedly warns against placing the acquisition of technique and tools ahead of the fostering of ideas. I agree and that is why I so vigorously disparage - if one is interested in making interesting pictures - the gear-oriented approach to picture making.
That is also why I will require attendees to my Picturing Making Chautauqua to limit themselves and their picture making activities to a single lens, preferably a single fixed focal length lens. If they only have a zoom lens, I will supply all the black electrical tape needed to secure the zoom control to a single focal length.
Reader Comments (3)
Great timing. I'm just finishing up the Frank Gohlke book you suggested a while back, which was excellent.
I get the hint, I'm thinking of a AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1.8 and putting it on my D40.
Which is why I'll probably never attend one of your "Chautauqua's". Why is it that it can only be one way? It's like telling a basketball player that the only way to really learn the game is to immobilize one of his arms (or in your "class", maybe cut it off). In effect, you're saying that it's far more likely that a "student" will learn to take "interesting pictures" by using only a prime. Who made that "rule"?