Wheelwrights Shop, Hart Square
“Hopper took something that was common and made it look uncommon.” These few words from a short film about artist Edward Hopper say so much about what makes great art. I just love it when a complex idea can be distilled into its essence and expressed in just a few words.
The quest is how to make the common uncommon. I would suggest this quest can be accomplished by constant long, examination of the common subject under many different conditions. Patience is a virtue and being patient around a subject spending time observing, waiting, remembering previous observations, synthesizing visual memories and generally developing a visual relationship with what intrigues you. Continuing to "work" a subject results in your understanding of the subject, its character and provides you with a better understanding of how to photograph your subject.
How do I know this is true? Edward Weston made forty four different photographs of peppers. That he kept trying after Pepper #30 means he wanted to keep trying, working, perfecting his method of photographing peppers. You don’t know you have reached your goal until you go past the goal and look back and see you have arrived.
People don’t spend time looking at the common thing. That’s why there are so few good photographs of common things. Most photographers do not stop and take the time to visually fall in love with the common things around us.
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