Art & Luck
July 5, 2009 // Posted by in Portraits
This post is a lot more philosophical than we normally put up on here, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Rob and I chat quite a bit about art, beauty, photography and life, and it’d be really great to hear what others think of all this crazy stuff that goes on in our heads!
So, recently we watched Match Point again. It’s a truly brilliant movie. Truly. It needs to be watched a few times to really appreciate all the subtleties. But my favorite line is this:
The man who said “I’d rather be lucky than good” saw deeply into life
This weekend we shot a very intense wedding. Two days, 23 hours of shooting, two ceremonies, and an unbelievable number of images created. Last night when we got home we were just exhausted, but can never sleep right after a wedding, so we usually peek at some of the photos.
It was then that I came across this image and was just totally stunned.
At first glance this image looks fairly straightforward. But I URGE you to stop and give yourself some time to look at it. Really look at all corners of it. Take the time to see the tones, the colours, the background. Note where your eye travels across the image.
Now that you’ve done that, I’ll tell you how I see this image. First off, it’s important to note that this hasn’t been edited at all. It hasn’t been cropped to create a better composition, it hasn’t been given contrast, had the colours changed, or the exposure tweaked. It is completely straight out of the camera. (I gave it a touch of web sharpening so you can see the details well at this size, but that’s truly all). I wouldn’t even put our logo on it because that would ruin it. That’s how deeply committed I am to showing this image are purely as possible.
The first thing I noticed was the absolutely perfect composition. Notice the space on either side of his shoulders. It’s pretty much perfect. Notice where the center of his neck is in relation to the two lines on the wall behind him. It’s pretty much perfect. Notice the fantastic lines in the image. The lines of his jacket, his shoulders, his tie, his shirt, his jaw, the peak of his lip, the small goatee. See how those lines all play together in such wonderful harmony.
And now where does your eye travel? It first hits on his white shirt and his tie. The brightest point in the image. The interesting thing here is that the tie isn’t in focus. If Rob was thinking when he took this, he would have focused on the tie. But he didn’t, he made a bit of an error almost, and focused on the face. So since the tie isn’t in focus, your eye tries to find something else to look at. Something to anchor to. It then travels up to the strongest point of contrast, which is his chin. Then you see his lips. I know this sounds so creepy and weird to say, but from an artistic standpoint they are perfect. The tone, the shape, the subtle expression. Perfect.
Then your eye drifts down, takes in the wonderful colours of the boutonniere, and lingers on the forms because it’s not quite in focus. The lines of his jacket then bring you down to the bottom of the frame, completing the journey.
(NB. That’s why my eye does every time I look at this. Your eyes might have a completely different trip, which is the beauty of art, it’s so completely subjective.)
Now, by this point hopefully you can see what I mean when I say that this image is absolutely perfect to me. I wouldn’t change anything at all. Nothing. There is nothing I feel I could do to make it any better than it is.
That’s a bold statement to be sure. And trust me when I say I’m not bragging. That’s where luck comes into it.
Rob took this image. I’ll be the first to say that I think he’s a wonderful photographer, and has a great eye for composition. But Rob isn’t this good. He’s not perfect. This image he created was not the result of him seeing all these little elements, and then pressing the shutter. He saw a lot: he saw the lines on the wall, the beauty of the groom’s outfit, knew he wanted to crop out most of the face to keep the focus on the details, and wanted the shoulders squared (essential to the composition) and the head turned (also essential). But Rob could not have possibly intended to create such a perfect frame. He was lucky. Very very lucky.
When I realised that this perfect image had been created, and it was a result of luck, I started to think. How much amazing artwork is the result of skill combined with heaps of luck?? Obviously skill is an essential part of creating great art, but does luck bring it to that next level more than we realize? It’s just a hypothetical thought, but what if Da Vinci had inteded another expression for his Mona Lisa? What if he was trying to do something else? And now all these years later, the smile is what we see as his brilliance? Now I’m not saying Da Vinci wasn’t brilliant. I’m just using a well known example to suggest that maybe luck is a huge huge part of being an artist. Some days you’re lucky and create something that transcends your skill level, and some days you’re not, and what you create is pretty standard.
To me, this image isn’t just a wedding photo. It’s a piece of art. I’m completely serious when I say that I intend to send this to our printer, and have a very large canvas made. I want to look at this photo every day, and enjoy the experience of looking at it. That’s what I get when I see it: an experience.
But perhaps I’m totally crazy? Maybe we are seeing more into this than exists. But I’m so very in awe that so many elements seemed to unite so perfectly to create this. So much chance. I don’t think images like this just happen every day, and so I wanted to share something that really excited us.
I really hope you enjoyed this diversion. Tomorrow we’ll be back to our regular program of crazy awesome photos (including acrobats, unbelievable reception rooms, Indian Orthodox ceremonies, painterly landscapes, and even a Bentley :)
Lauren
Johal 8 months ago
Absolutely beautiful…....
Emilie 8 months ago
Thanks for posting this photo! I DID enjoy this diversion! You might be lucky but you also take some fab photos!! Luck + talent = good work! :)
Thanks for sharing your talent and your good words with us!
Emilie (French soon-to-be photographer)
Nizam 8 months ago
These pictures are incredible, you both look great
ger 8 months, 1 week ago
WOW! What a blog. To allow us normal folk to delve into the minds of an amazing duo of photographers. slow clap This is why you guys are on my daily hitlist :)
Erik Hornung 8 months, 1 week ago
Maybe it isn’t luck? A lot of the time I feel my best images were just lucky except for a few minor aspects – such as those you pointed out in your image above. But maybe this so called “luck” are details and aspects of y/our vision unconsciously sees? Could someone who doesn’t do what you do on a daily basis accidently compose a shot like yours as easily as you accidentally got the shot?
The definition of a perfect shot is also debatable. Is it a perfect photo if the photo wasn’t intentional? Or perhaps we’ll never know if this shot is perfect unless we were to actually know somehow if this shot was unconsciously intentional.
Very nice shot.
Hailey 8 months, 1 week ago
Lauren,
I completely agree. Some of my favourite photographs aren’t ones that I think they’ll be when I press the shutter… oftentimes they are ones I didn’t expect…
My eye made the exact same trip around the photo…
It’s what every photographer/painter/designer (let’s just say artist) hopes to achieve with the final product. To have the eye drawn across the image and truly appreciate each aspect.
This is Perfection.