check this out...

when i need some photog ideas, i go to flickr choose a set ( bw e.g ) and let the slide show run. endless pics pass by. amongst the many, a few catch my attention and i learn something new.

i was introduced to this person's work thru another site. i have run this work multiple times and am really
impressed and moved by this work.

thought i would share with you all. if this is the wrong forum or inappropriate, mods pls. move or
delete it.

http://www.smague.fr/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmanuel_smague/

hope you enjoy it as much as i do. all with an m7 and cron 35 asph.

Emmanuel Smague does, indeed, have some wonderful work and a real talent for seeing and grabbing moments. Personally I wish he'd take a swing at color.

But back to you. I am always interested in learning how people derive ideas from the works of others. How did this work inspire you, Fahim?

hi ken,

you pose a seemingly simple question, but which addresses the essence of an artistic work. a brief answer:

1. vision,theme, preparedness, simplicity,and being one with the subject and surroundings. feel and convey.
1.a bw brings out the emotional aspect, imho, that color would not.

and to a much lesser extent, because it can be learnt with a little bit of practice.

2. i believe the instinctive mastery of composition, the frame and technique.

Emmanuel has what a lot of us wish they had ( me included ) in terms of photography, but sadly i fall far short of it.

take care and please do not pose simple questions the answers to which we can feel and experience, but which we cannot deliver .

let's talk about our shiny gear/s and avoid mundane discussions that have no bearing on my shiny new
all seeing all auto picture machine that cost an arm and a leg!

Ken Tanaka said:

Emmanuel Smague does, indeed, have some wonderful work and a real talent for seeing and grabbing moments. Personally I wish he'd take a swing at color.

But back to you. I am always interested in learning how people derive ideas from the works of others. How did this work inspire you, Fahim?

Click to expand...

fahim mohammed said:

hi ken,

you pose a seemingly simple question, but which addresses the essence of an artistic work. a brief answer:

1. vision,theme, preparedness, simplicity,and being one with the subject and surroundings. feel and convey.
1.a bw brings out the emotional aspect, imho, that color would not.

and to a much lesser extent, because it can be learnt with a little bit of practice.

2. i believe the instinctive mastery of composition, the frame and technique.

Emmanuel has what a lot of us wish they had ( me included ) in terms of photography, but sadly i fall far short of it.

Click to expand...

Hi Fahim,

I too was flummoxed at first by the simple question Ken posed. It puts us on the spot but we do need to ask so we know what we are appreciating and why. Your answers are helpful.

I would say it all boils down to brilliant simplicity and vision. I am so impressed with his work. He choose what to include very carefully. This is more than instinct. There's a tremendous discipline to give the air of centrality of his subject. It's as if the universe is around them. They are very defined and so devoid of detractions!

Asher

Great link -- kind of Salgado-esque or maybe more a McCurry in B&W...

Would emmanuel's work have the same impact in color and digital as opposed to b/w and film?

Hi Fahim,

Ken started us on a difficult path.

I think that removing color takes away extraneous distractions that give weight to things, other than those from the meaning of the pieces. Color can be utterly important in some pictures but the risk is that it also carries with it lots of other values and feelings.

Emmanuel has taken great pains to make it appear that what he photographs is one conceptual substance made into various shapes. So that even though there's a figure on a landscape, the disparate components seem more continuously connected as if they are variations within the same medium.

Removal of color is one of the fastest ways to connect things. However, his images have well conceived design in the first place. I cannot imagine that most of them aren't posed. So while color removal lifts a patchwork of emotional filters, what's left is remarkable because it's made so.

I think that some of the pictures would likely work even with color, but might, perhaps, be more like looking though a window than looking at a sculpture of ideas made from that view.

Asher

Regarding asking Fahim what inspired him...

Self-consciousness about the nature of your reactions to others work is actually a very important skill for artists and photographers (but one rarely taught in "art schools"). Unless you're just the most casual of snapper you should never accept shallow, visceral "I like it" / "I don't like it" from yourself as you look at others work. Study others work deeper. Learn to identify precisely what evokes your reactions to a particular image. Is it a characteristic you want to replicate? Etc.

I'm going to pass on the color -vs-black and white discussion. It's one that inevitably meanders through the usual banquet of discussion tones and ends up spent on the floor with nobody feeling persuaded or even better informed. I will, however, remark that being self-conscious of the true nature of your reactions to color -vs- b&w is also a very good place to begin developing this skill.

Ken Tanaka said:

I'm going to pass on the color -vs-black and white discussion. It's one that inevitably meanders through the usual banquet of discussion tones and ends up spent on the floor with nobody feeling persuaded or even better informed.

Click to expand...

Ken,

I don't think we've seen much evidence of that here. We're very open to learning. I for one would love to know your views on what makes Emmanuel remove color and what that might be doing to your appreciation of the elements in his photographs that work so well for you. Also what are the limits of this success? Are there some examples where color might have been more powerful and successful?

Asher

Asher,

Regarding color -vs- b&w, there is no right or wrong. One of the many joys and strengths of today's digital photography --at any price level-- is that photographers can explore the possibilities of an image (provided they were recorded in color) and then re-explore it in the future as one's eye matures.

Personally, I very much enjoy living in both worlds. B&w is, by its nature, an interpretive abstraction of the original scene. But manipulated color can certainly be equally an abstraction from the original document.

I do not adhere to the dogmas that so many amateur photographers adopt often in mimicry of esteemed works. My own thought processes are very simple. When I first look at an image of mine I ask myself, "Does color add anything desirable to the image? Is color in the image's fabric?". If my first impression is "Yes", or "I'm not sure" I leave it in color. If not, I will often explore the image in b&w. Yes, I sometimes shoot specifically with one or the other in mind. But I keep my mind, and options, open.

One of the all-time masters of this dichotomy is Magnum photographer Constantine Manos. Take some undistracted time to walk through his online portfolio (which dates back to the 1950's) and I think you will see a fine exhibit of what I'm trying to express.

Ken Tanaka said:

I do not adhere to the dogmas that so many amateur photographers adopt often in mimicry of esteemed works. My own thought processes are very simple. When I first look at an image of mine I ask myself, "Does color add anything desirable to the image? Is color in the image's fabric?". If my first impression is "Yes", or "I'm not sure" I leave it in color. If not, I will often explore the image in b&w. Yes, I sometimes shoot specifically with one or the other in mind. But I keep my mind, and options, open.

Click to expand...

Ken this is exactly how I proceed. However, I'm not sure that removing color is always an abstraction, rather it can equally be removing detractions or distractions.

For shape and texture to be seen best, color might need to be removed. However, these newly realized distinctions might not make a photograph abstract, rather what's there is merely revealed. Perhaps this view of mine is only useful to me, just my own way of viewing things. In fact, as we depart in any way from what it looked like with out eyes, it is indeed abstracted. Still, for myself, in the meaning of abstract as used in art, B&W might be sometimes excluded from this categorization.

Ken Tanaka said:

One of the all-time masters of this dichotomy is Magnum photographer Constantine Manos. Take some undistracted time to walk through his online portfolio (which dates back to the 1950's) and I think you will see a fine exhibit of what I'm trying to express.

Click to expand...

You're a great source of references. Thanks for pointing us to Constantine Manos.

Asher