Teaching Photography #4: How Photographs Communicate
Week four combines analysis with continued practice. My niece has been making photographs for three weeks, and she’s developed intuitions about what…
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✦ Category
Theory
The Photographer as Interpreter
Photography has a self-image problem, and it starts with the word “witness.” The term has circulated in photographic theory long enough to…
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Teaching Photography #3: Learning to See By Doing
My niece will spend weeks two and three developing her eye through structured assignments, all while keeping the camera on automatic. She’s…
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Street Photography Makes Me Uncomfortable mk2
I was re-reading some of my old posts lately because I’ve started work on a mini book based on my Substack posts’…
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Teaching Photography #2: What Photography Is For
The first session with my niece will establish what photography is actually for, but not through abstract discussion. She’ll have her camera…
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The Beholder Has Changed
You already know the photograph. Nick Ut took it in 1972 on a road in Vietnam: a girl running, napalm smoke behind…
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Teaching Photography #1: Starting From Why
My niece is twelve. She loves taking photos with whatever’s in her pocket, but the 550D I gave her sits mostly untouched…
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The Evolution of Photographic Meaning
I’ve been thinking about how photographers develop over time. Looking at what I’ve been writing over the last few months, I see…
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How Photography Works In My Head #6: Working With Your Cognitive Style Instead of Against It
Once you understand your cognitive profile, the question becomes what to do with that understanding. You can fight your natural architecture, trying…
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The Two Objects of Photography
There’s a contradiction that’s been nagging at me for years, and I’ve only recently found a way to articulate why it’s a…
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