JB & Susan Harlin

I keep harping on the idea that photography is about the photograph and not the equipment. Or, at least, that is the direction I prefer to take when it comes to the discussion of photography. Talking shop about the gear is the easy part. Talking about the photograph, and the makeup of an image is much more difficult.

The reason the hardware is much easier to discuss is because it is a real, tangible, thing. A piece of hardware you can pick up and hold it in your hand. It has a name and a specific function. You can learn to use a piece of equipment. Most everything about it is well defined and it works in a particular way.

What makes up art is something that is only a feeling. You either like what you see, or you don’t. Looking at some images triggers a feeling or memory that touches you deeply, but cannot be expressed with words. What is definitely appealing to one person is completely ignored by another. To express a great piece of art in words mostly detracts from its emotional content. You just can’t explain a great image.

I am much more interested in hearing how a person was attracted to something, which in turn led them to be motivated to make the photo, rather than the f-stop and shutter speed they used. There are those times when you just KNOW it is time to expose film. The question is, how do you know?

This is the hardest part of artistic photography. There are those that have attempted to explain what is pleasing to the eye by lowering themselves to a form of art speak. Stringing big words together does nothing but make a lot of squiggly lines on paper. Talking for the sake of talk and saying nothing, is what politicians base their careers on.

I am interested in understanding the thought process, but some things are just not well suited for words. Sometimes it is best to just look and enjoy. Below are a few interesting quotes from David Vestal.

• “When you must use words, use plain, clear ones that say exactly what you mean. That’s hard. Art jargon is easy but it only impresses fools. It turns intelligent people off and tells them that the jargon-user is a fool.”

• “Pompous wall labels that explain how your work transcends everything usually fool only curators and collectors.”

• “Such instructions don’t work. People will see your work as they are ready to see it and no better, no matter how wonderful you tell them it is.”

Photo Techniques Advanced B&W Printing Photos 303, The Pratt Institute Handouts by David Vestal

I heard, or maybe read somewhere, that “Amateur photographers talk about equipment. . . Serious photographers talk about photographs!” Personally, I am much more interested in photographs than cameras. A camera is just a light-tight box that holds the lens and film.

Certainly it is important to have the proper tools in order to be successful at anything you attempt. Matters not whether you are building a bookcase, fixing a leaky kitchen faucet or making a photograph. But to obsess endlessly over your tool belt is not necessary. Think of it this way. You take your dream vacation to some really far away place you have always dreamed of visiting. Would you come back and tell everyone all of the details of where you visited, or would you go into excessive detail about the airplane that flew you there?

I defy anyone to look at a framed photograph hanging on the wall and tell me the camera, lens, film, or paper that was used. You would have to be a mind reader! Is the equipment necessary? Certainly! But equipment is only an apparatus necessary to reach an end. The camera is a tool, no more, nor no less, important than a wrench. All you really care about is that faucet in the kitchen stops dripping. Do you care about the name on that wrench?

What I care about is the finished photo on the wall. . . well. . . I have to admit that being out in the field searching for something to point the camera toward is also very important. But everything that goes on between those two moments is really of little interest to me, other than I having what I need to bridge the gap.

What I am trying to say is, spend more time with the image and stop obsessing over the hardware. Buy the best equipment you can afford and work at wearing it out making photos, not wearing yourself, and everyone else, out talking about the paraphernalia.

JB