the performative aspect of photography

Photography is more than a photo. When we look at a picture we don’t see how it is done. Often we have to guess what the creative process was that led to the image.

You can view the process as an performance – how the photographer interacts with the subject:

• The landscape photographer puts up the tripod and waits for the right moment when the sun light is perfect
• the street photographer dances around to find the right angle and composition
• the portrait photographer sets up the light and directs the subject how to pose

I find this interpretation of the photographic process irritating – a performance means that there is someone who is watching the process. Sure, I love to watch other photographers doing their work, but more often nobody notices when somebody takes a picture.

For me taking pictures is more like a dialog.

A scene speaks to me and I answer to it by pressing the shutter and take a picture. I love it when the dialog continues in the mind of the viewer. When the captured scene rises questions:

• Where does it come from?
• Where is it going?
• What is happening right now?

That’s what I aim for – visual story telling.

Before I can do that I need to prepare myself and do the inner work – I make myself ready to take pictures today. I get into a state of calm and open awareness so that I can notice the fine signals and vibes.

In my creative process I like surprises: Even if I work with models or actors – I have created a mood-board and set up a theme and a story to communicate my ideas – when it comes to the shooting itself, I don’t have an image in mind that I want to create. I am more like a blank canvas.

All of this needs practice: Practice to understand the effect of lighting, colour and composition – to see the world through the lens of a camera.