Breaking the Rules
...mastering then breaking the rules.
Picasso said that he spent his adult life trying to draw like a child. If you study his early work you discover that he was a master draftsman. Which is to say, he could draw really well. I point this out because if you conjure up images of his work you might not draw that conclusion, given the freedom of expression he demonstrates. The point is, Picasso broke the rules and started a revolution in the arts. But not before he mastered the rules.
In photography we are taught that you shouldn’t shoot into the light. In photography we are taught that we should recover shadows in post, and that we should have a full tonal ranges, especially in black and white. In photography we are taught that blowout highlights are to be avoided at all costs.
I share this image today because it breaks the rules. This is not to imply that I am a master of the rules. Rather, I post it because it is an example of an experiment that worked.
It was a sunny day in Paris. I had just arrived that morning, jet-lagged, to begin a week of photographing, of doing my favorite thing, walking around a new venue with my camera. I made my way to the Seine. It was Sunday and a rare sunny winter day in Paris. There were lots of people out and about. Despite the flight and the time zone changes I was energized and stimulated. Travel will do that. It’s like suddenly having new eyes. Everything is fresh. This, for me, is the essence of being mindful as a photographer—to be in full mental focus yet giving myself up to the moment such that my mind does not intrude.
I saw the pedestrian approaching the bridge walkway and made three images. Each exposure tracks him moving closer to the blasting morning sun, something we would normally avoid. But given my mental state, excited and feeling powerfully creative, I continued to shoot.
The image works despite the rule breaking. The take away for me is that in following your excitement and your instinct, in being fully present in the moment you might start to make your own rules, which is the path to a singular and artistic vision.
Thanks for reading.
