Artistic Portraiture | Self Expression

© 2009 Wazari Wazir | Self Expression

“I think your picture is not sharp”, “I think your picture is a little bit dark”, I think your highlight is blown out”, ” I think you picture has too much noise”. For me this is all “funny comments” not from photographers but I would call them a “Technicgraphers” why? Simply because these kind of people who like to comments about technical aspect of photography fail to realize what photography is all about, a picture is not like an engine or a building where you can measure or judge their performance by technical aspect. Great photography or great picture will work even if they break all the rules, a blurry picture and totally blown out highlight picture will still stand a chance to win a World Press Photo Awards if the picture is GREAT regardless of their lack of technical aspect.

For me it is very simple, a GREAT picture is a GREAT picture and a BAD picture is a BAD picture even though all the technical aspect is perfect in term of composition, lighting, exposure  and etc and etc. Talking about “Self Expression” for me personally how you present your work in term of editing and shooting is up to you, it’s your expression, it’s your artwork, unless you are hired to shoot for somebody then of course you have to follow their order, their ideas, their angle because they are the one who paid you.

I’m working in a photojournalism line, where I can’t express myself freely in term of angle of shooting and editing, I’ve to follow my department point of view, in this case our government view, for my official assignment, I did not do my editing like what I normally do, no crazy color tones, no textures and no special effect, in fact I almost don’t need photoshop to edit my official assignment pictures, Just shoot, download to my computer and later on burn it to CD and give to my department, as simple as that.

The reason why I’m writing here is this, we should learn how to appreciate other people artwork, not to suggest to them, “why don’t  you do this, why don’t you do that”. It’s their artwork, if people follow your order or ideas maybe follow few peoples order then their artwork is no longer his own “self expression” it becames few peoples expression, there is no originality in that and as we become more knowledgeable about photography, in term of shooting, composition, lighting and editing, we tend to forget what photography is all about in the first place, that is to record or captured a moment in frame and sharing it with others.

It may not be perfect in term of composition, lighting, maybe a bit blur, the highlight is blown out but for me as long as the picture tells a story, it is a good picture for me, compared to perfectly exposed picture, great composition and perfectly edited but lack of emotional feelings into it and doesn’t touch your heart, that picture is nothing to me, just another beautiful picture with no soul to touch our heart, I would rather appreciate a blurry picture of a crying child hunger for food than a beautiful picture of a super model walking in the catwalk.

I’m not trying to say that shooting super models in the catwalk is not a good picture, yes it is beautiful and maybe you are shooting it for the money but what I’m trying to say here is, it’s nothing, it’s just beautiful pictures that doesn’t touch peoples feelings deeply compared to a blurry picture of crying child hunger for food that maybe can shed tears to those who are looking at it.

Let’s us appreciate what others have to offer, let’s us not critics their artwork for the sake of to satisfy our needs, our taste, our composition, everybody are different, your point of view is not the same as mine, for an example, like the picture of my son above, maybe you don’t like textures, maybe you don’t like monochromatic image, maybe you don’t like square format but I like it and at least you know my taste, my style, and my work represent my self, my Self Expression, and that’s one of the reason I rarely comment on others pictures because I like to look and appreciate other peoples artwork, their point of view rather than ask them to follow my view.

The world will be much interesting place to live if we have a different view, different taste but still can lives in harmony because everybody appreciate each other. How boring the world of photography is if everybody follow the same rules of ROT, following the same angle and composition, shooting the same thing over and over again just because it’s beautiful from the same composition, so let’s us be free, free to express ourselves and if possible express it without hurting anybody feelings. Be free, feels free, learn the rules and then break it if it doesn’t suit your style. Happy shooting…

After reading back my writing here, I’ve to clarify what BAD picture meant to me personally, a BAD picture is a picture that can create HATRED among peoples, a picture that can cause WAR between nations or among peoples is a BAD pictures. A BAD looking picture or situation that was shot intentionally for good reason is Good picture, like what photojournalism does, we highlight some BAD pictures, a “Back Alleys” not to drop anybody water face, department or organization but our intention is good, we want something to be done in order to fix certain situation where people won’t notice it without being highlighted.

We don’t called a picture of a Tsunami Victims crying for help as a “Beautiful Picture” but we called it a “Great Picture”, a picture that touch our heart, our feelings, evoke a sense of sadness. This is just my personal thought and opinion, yours maybe different, you may agree or disagree because everybody is different but do not let our difference breaking us apart, instead we should become closer after understanding our different, in view and opinion. Some people like Black and White, some people like Colors, some people like shooting with Film, do not argue whether film is better than digital or vice versa, lets us just appreciate the Photograph…