Mary Ellen Mark Quote

"The difficulty with color is to go beyond the fact that it's color – to have it be not just a colorful picture but really be a picture about something. It's difficult. So often color gets caught up in color, and it becomes merely decorative. Some photographers use [ it ] brilliantly to make visual statements combining color and content; otherwise it is empty."

-Mary Ellen Mark

APG Workshops

The Albuquerque Photographers' Gallery is now offering workshops for photographers of all experience levels, starting with "Personal Vision: Taking Control of the Creative Process" on September 12th, 6-8 PM.

A camera can calculate mathematically the right exposure and focus the lens for you but it has no idea what feelings or messages you are trying to communicate in your image. What if you decided to take control and make the creative decisions based on what vision you have in your head?

"Personal Vision" offers 10 tools to help you make better and more creative images. These tools are not expensive and are not found in the latest high tech equipment or software. Remember, the most important piece of photographic equipment in the world is your brain—and you already own it.

This two-hour class is geared toward advanced beginners— those who are familiar with their own cameras and want to move beyond snapshots, or photographers at any level who want a little extra inspiration. Attendees may bring one of their own photos (either a print or a jpeg on a flash drive) for critique, depending on the available time at the end of the class.

Instructor:
Janet Worne has been a professional photographer for over 30 years, most of that time as a photojournalist. While working for newspapers in three states, she has covered a wide variety of subjects, including sports, news, features, and art. She has won numerous awards from ANMPAS, Associated Press and the National Press Photographers Association, among others. Some of her work is in the permanent collection at The National Museum for Women in the Arts in DC. She has taught college level photography and served as a mentor for NPPA. Janet currently lives in New Mexico, pursuing fine art photography.

Check our website, we will soon have details and updates on this or any other future workshops.

Aaron Siskind

“….as the language or vocabulary of photography has been extended, the emphasis of meaning has shifted—shifted from what the world looks like to what we feel about the world and what we want the world to mean.”

-Aaron Siskind

Theory of Asymmetry

 

Part of a photographer’s job is to calm and distract the subject while taking their picture. This is not always easy, especially when they say, “I look terrible in photos” or “I might break your camera”. One solution is to describe the Theory of Asymmetry. It not only explains away some of their fears, but talking while you work distracts them from getting nervous. It goes like this:

Everyone’s face is asymmetrical. We are used to seeing ourselves in a mirror, which of course, gives us a flipped image of what we really look like. What we see in a photograph is what everyone else is used to but it is the exact opposite of our own reality.

This theory, admittedly, is my own creation and does not stem from any scientific research. I use it merely to assuage the common affliction that I call: Fear of Having Your Picture Taken.

Look at these two pictures. You can see quite a difference. When I see myself in a picture or a double mirror image, I think my smile looks crooked. In a mirror, or when I flop the picture, I think I look normal. I comfort myself by realizing that nobody else sees what I see.

The picture on the right is the flopped image.

~Janet Worne

William Albert Allard Quote

"What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer."

-William Albert Allard

Auld Reekie

Historic Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, was at one time nicknamed “Auld Reekie” because of the open sewers and smoke from thousands of chimneys. Chimney Sweeps had thriving businesses, often employing young boys—known as “climbing boys”—to climb up into the narrow chimneys until legislation in the 1800’s put an end to child labor.

By the mid-twentieth century, electric and gas-fired heating systems replaced most of the old coal and wood fires used previously. In the last few years, however, homeowners have been re-opening the old chimneys to bring back the beauty of real fires.

On a recent trip to that historic and beautiful city, I was visually attracted to the thousands of chimney pots that crowded the skyline. The rooftops reminded me of my favorite childhood movie—Mary Poppins. The clay pots were varied and anthropomorphic. On some buildings they were identical and lined up like soldiers marching to war. Others were mismatched and comical. The other movie I was reminded of from my childhood was “Alice in Wonderland”, where the flowers took on human characteristics.

The last two days I was there I must have missed many interesting sights because I was too busy looking up with my camera.

--Janet Worne

Bill Brandt Quote

“Most photographers would feel a certain embarrassment in admitting publicly that they carried within them a sense of wonder, yet without it they would not produce the work they do, whatever their particular field.”

--Bill Brandt