Truer words were never spoken about a photoshoot. I heard this on episode 104 of The Grid podcast with guest Peter Hurley. I love a photo critique episode and I really appreciated that the audience seemed to take exception with some of Peter's comments. But he was spot on. Expression and emotion of a photo will always trump technical perfection.
RC chimed in with an old standby quote that I believe is attributed to Jay Maysel (but it's possible i'm wrong), "There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy idea." And that is absolutely true. Art (& Photography) should say something.
I was curious how my photos would hold up to this critique. So I reviewed my portfolio at the top of this site. I think my images would hold up to the scrutiny. And the more Peter spoke, the more I realized I share a lot of the same ideas... if not outwardly consciously about it. On my shoots, I like to have fun. When he said that, It struck me how many photographers on our podcast (LightSource, on a long hiatus... lol) said just that.
If you can't get the person in front of the lens to connect with the person behind the lens... they won't connect with the person looking at the photo.
Forget technical excellence... Just make more interesting stuff. ;-)
