LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
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LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process
Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art ph...
Episoade Recente
136 episoade
HT2490 - The Competition for Attention
Here, deep in the age of media, doesn't it seem obvious that there is a raging and ever-present contest for our attention. Consider the next hour of l...
HT2489 - Processing for the Medium
There now exist so many different media we can choose for the output of our photographs. These choices imply that we need to process our images with t...
HT2488 - If You Can See It, Too
Over the years, I've talked a lot about using a camera like a Xerox copy machine. If your photograph shows me what I would have seen had I been standi...
HT2487 - Solving a Non-Existing Problem
I can't blame camera manufacturers for wanting to call our attention to their new features. However, it's amazing how many times the new features they...
HT2486 - Creativity on Demand
Here we are in that week between the Christmas and New Year holidays when a lot of people take time off from work for a few personal days. For years,...
LW1486 - Alternative Aesthetics
LW1486 - Alternative Aesthetics
Photography has a natural aesthetic we might call photographic realism. The typical photograph is intended to mi...
HT2485 - One Lens to Rule Them All
Clearly I'm not the only photographer who has dreamed of a single lens that would do everything I need. The popularity of so-called "superzoom" lenses...
HT2484 - Sometimes the Meaning Requires Time
During one of the first Christmas holidays after my divorce in the late 1980s, I drove over to Eastern Oregon on Christmas Day for a little photograph...
HT2483 - Pixels Per Meter
I was looking at an astronomy website when it introduced me to a term and concept I'd never heard before. Describing the resolution of an image based...
HT2482 - Useful Photography
It seems that most fine art photography tends to be decorative in nature. I love seeing a beautiful print on display in someone's home. Décor is not t...
HT2481 - Counting Shots
My first 35 years in photography were deep in the roots of the analog workflow. One of the realities that was constantly at the top of my thinking was...
HT2480 - A Language I Do Not Speak
One of the objectives of art is to communicate with others. That communication does rely, however, on a common language and vocabulary. I was thinking...
HT2479 - Screen vs Print Synchronicity
A source of constant frustration over the years has been the differences between what I see on my computer monitor and what I see in a print. They're...
LW1485 - Do We Still Need a Camera?
LW1485 - Do We Still Need a Camera?
A long-time LensWork reader asks why Brooks is not an early adopter of AI technology for making photographic...
HT2478 - Photography As a Spiritual Practice
Photography and spiritual practices would seem to be worlds apart. I'm not so sure about that. Do we need to know the photographer's foundation in ord...
HT2477 - Your Philosophy of Photography
The mechanical, chemical, and technical aspects of photography do not need a philosophical basis as their foundation. Science is needed and perhaps a...
HT2476 - The Balance Between Doing and Finishing
These last few months have been a particularly busy time for me photographically. I've been doing lots of work, processing images, organizing files, k...
HT2475 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor
I suppose everyone listening to this commentary would, to one degree or another, describe themselves as "a photographer." But how we define ourselves...
HT2474 - Validation via Publication
Last spring, I had an opportunity to show some work to a new acquaintance. They were complimentary and then asked where the images had been published....
HT2472 - The YOU Who Photographs
When I go out photographing, I often begin with the sense that I need to shift mental gears from everyday thought to artmaking thought. I feel the nee...
LW1484 - Persistence and Longevity
LW1484 - Persistence and Longevity
I'm a believer in sustained effort. I know this puts me in direct conflict with today's instantaneous culture...
HT2471 - Predictability and Art
Lynn and I have been watching a series on Netflix that has become totally predictable. Every plot twist, every character reaction, every conflict betw...
HT2470 - Enough Camera for the Purpose
In my life, I've owned and used an 8x10 camera, a 5x7 camera, a medium format monorail camera, 35 mm cameras, twin lens reflex cameras, and over a doz...
HT2469 - The Doors Lit My Fire
My generation, like most generations, had their own music. As a child of the '60s and '70s, I had no idea that rock and roll was following the well-es...
HT2468 - Until Spoken Through
One of my favorite quotes about the art life comes from Anaïs Nin who advised "Do not speak unless spoken through." This captures my philosophy of pho...
HT2467 - Depreciation Happens
We all know the bumper sticker wisdom that can be politely translated with the phrase "poo poo occurs." That's the sense with which I titled this comm...
HT2473 - Sorry Disney, Snow Is Not White
With the turn of the weather, we photographers in the northern hemisphere can start thinking about snow photography. I've always found snow to be one...
HT2466 - Postpone or Intensify
Photography has the ability to lead us to two completely different relationships with existence. We can use photography to postpone our relationship w...
HT2465 - Rotating Batteries
Here's one of those dumb little practical ideas that can be so useful. It has to do with using multiple batteries and amortizing the wear and tear on...
LW1483 - Some Thoughts on Inventing Our Own Medium
LW1483 - Some Thoughts on Inventing Our Own Medium
At its most fundamental and simple terms, artmaking something that expresses something. Notic...
HT2464 - A Most Welcome Winter Photography Tool
Perhaps you've heard the advice, "There is no bad weather, there is only bad clothing." When I woke up this morning, it was -2° F outside. For reasons...
HT2463 - The Responsibilities of Owning Artwork
I had a water leak that dripped into a couple of portfolio cases where I housed artwork from other photographers. I lost 13 pieces of wonderful work t...
HT2462 - My New Phone Has Adaptive Display
My old phone finally gave up the ghost when its battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore. So off to the phone store and a new phone, and that sizable pr...
HT2461 - Variations on a Theme
I'm a fan of Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano compositions. I was not aware, however, until last night, of a composition he wrote titled Variations on a Th...
HT2460 - With the Passage of Time
I'm certainly not the only photographer who looks back at their earlier work and feels a sense of embarrassment. What was I thinking? Of all the negat...
HT2459 - AI and the Ideal
When we say that one photograph is better than another, how do we arrive at that conclusion? When we are processing our images, what is the criteria w...
HT2458 - Every Capture Is a Teacher
The core of artmaking is the twin fusion of learning and producing. It's easy to see that if there is no producing there is no artwork. It's not so ob...
LW1482 - The Importance of Momentum
LW1482 - The Importance of Momentum
Borrowing a phrase from Carl Chiarenza and his book, Pictures Come from Pictures, I'd like to propose that "...
HT2457 - One of One
In 1989, I commissioned a metal shop expert to create an adapter for my Arca Swiss monorail view camera that would allow me to use Polaroid 3¼ by 4¼ f...
HT2456 - The Most Memorable Photographs of our Age
Time has a way of filtering out the unimportant. Think back 500 years ago. We don't remember local politics, but we do remember the great art from tha...