My Motivation and Goals

Back in the 70's when I first got serious about photography, I quickly learned the technical aspects but was frustrated and disappointed by my artistic abilities. I staggered between thoughts of I didn't have what it takes to create great artistic statements, to the world didn't understand me, to composition is a club for people who prefer profundity over clarity. Just like my understanding of composition my attitude toward learning it was flapping in the wind.

Needless to say, my growth as an artist meandered like a ship without a rudder. Rare successes held me over through times of drought that overwhelmed me in meaningless mile after mile of worthless film. My dissatisfaction was so deep I don't think I even picked up a camera during most of the decade of the nineties.

A good example of the root of my disappointment can be summed up by an incident in an art class I was taking. The professor had made a statement about a work of art to which I ask for a clarification. His response was, "If you can't understand that than I can't teach you!"

Regardless of the effects that statement had to my self esteem, I had moments where I was confident that I could get this thing called artistic expression. But perhaps I should back up a bit for a moment.

Back in the late seventies while living in Southern Spain I befriended an artist whose chosen medium was photography. During the summer he would go to a bar on the beach and set out his photographs in hopes of selling some or getting a job.

I have long since forgotten his name (I don't think I ever knew his last name). But we would sit and talk about his work (and others) and the compositional thought behind them over beers and tapas. While not really getting what he was talking about, he would always encourage me by saying, "That's okay, just keep working at it and it will come to you, composition doesn't have an exact formula." That encouragement did a lot for times like the Art Professor incident described above.

Perhaps it was negative incidences like the one in my art class that gave me a cynical view of the typical photography book regarding composition. What I read were formulas and rules followed by statements like, "Break the rules." No one, it seemed to me, could explain composition in concrete terms.

Then after picking up photography again in the late nineties, I was introduced to an author who could – Rudolf Arnheim. Someone got me his book, "Art and Visual Perception." And after the first time through I thought it was a bunch of gobbly gook but threw it on the bookshelf anyway. After about a year of sitting there collecting dust, I looked at it again and almost threw it out but decided to give it one more try.

You see, I had noticed that I had a new vision with more concrete ideas and better execution. Could it be what I read a year earlier? I studied the text much more thoroughly than the last time and found myself relating to it more and more. I have read this book once a year ever since. Arnheim is not an easy author to digest. Or perhaps it is composition that poses the difficulty and Arnheim is the only one to successfully put it in solid terms. It is a difficult book to read though and definitely not for everyone!

To say that most of material for this blog comes from that book would be an understatement. I have read other, just as relevant, books by this author which also weigh heavily in my personal compositional theory. But this is not just a re-publication of the content within. It is the source of my knowledge that needs to be sited for those of you who read this blog though.

So if you are looking for solid, concrete concepts on composition as it applies to photography, I believe this is the place for you. But the last thing I am going to say is that I am an expert on composition. I'm not. I have learned some things that were difficult to find good information about and when I did find the information it took a lot more than just reading it once over to understand it. And I can think of nothing better than a place like this for like minded individual to share their ideas, understanding, and theories on this murky concept called composition.

My long term goal is to function more as a moderator of compositional concepts. With that in mind, I look to feature as many of your comments as possible and hope they stimulate conversation and thought that can be turned into actions right from the very start. Eventually I hope to include contributions from you, the reader, for all to see and think about.

Happy shooting,

Doug