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| Phil Douglis | profile | guestbook | all galleries | recent | tree view | thumbnails |
| I call this my pbase “cyberbook” on expressive travel photography. Each of these galleries is an educational resource, demonstrating a key aspect of what goes into making pictures express ideas to viewers. When taken together, they will offer you a comprehensive, step-by-step instructional guide to the process of making travel photographs that will say something about your subjects, instead of merely describing them.
Most travel photographers start out by making pictures of things to simply describe what they see. I call this the literal travel snapshot. Most travel snapshots are made to preserve private meanings. Many photographers will eventually move on to a second phase – making aesthetically pleasing pictures that enhance what they saw. I call this the “artistic” snapshot - essentially the same as a lovely picture post card or a calendar illustration. This cyberbook does not concern itself with either of these phases. Instead, I demonstrate what goes into a third phase – interpreting the things you see on your travels to express meaning to others. I call these pictures “expressive” images. They are images made for public, rather than private meanings. Expressive photography, like all art, offers universal, and often metaphorical, statements.
What is expressive imagery? It is photography that interprets, rather than describes, what we see to others. It tells a story, going beyond conveying information for its own sake. It becomes metaphorical. One of my most influential teachers, photographer Minor White, taught us that "photographs can be outward expressions of inward states. They are about not just what some thing is, but rather, what else it is." By expressing our own metaphorical point of view about what we see, we can communicate ideas to others, triggering emotional, intellectual, and imaginative responses.
In my view, expressive photography is based upon the three principles I demonstrate in the first three galleries of this cyberbook: Abstraction, Incongruity, and Human Values. Abstraction removes literal, descriptive clutter and hones an image down to its essence and encourages unlimited thinking. Incongruity presents elements that seem to be at odds with their context and creates contrasts and juxtapositions that stimulate both the emotions and the imagination. Human values convey the emotions, beliefs, traditions and knowledge that we understand and share as humans. I suggest that anyone using this cyberbook as a learning tool, study these three galleries before going on to the rest of them.
I believe that human values hold the key to expressive photography. They stand at the base of a triangle of principles upon which I build my images. Abstraction runs up one side of this triangle, incongruity the other, and human values supports both of them. Without this triangle, expression does not occur, and without human values, the triangle does not stand, because abstraction and incongruity will have no anchor.
Once we know the humane point we are trying to express to our viewers, we can then consider how to abstract the image to reveal its essence, as well as how to bring either perceptual incongruity or subject incongruity into play. And then we can go on to fine tune our image with color, mood, atmosphere, composition, and best make our decisions in controlling light, perspective, and moments in time. These options are not Phil’s “rules or laws of expressive photography.” This is simply how I choose to understand and use the language of photographic expression, a language that, above all, must be a human, rather a technical, language.
As you browse these galleries, you will notice that I frequently break the so-called “rules” or conventions of photography. Following those "rules" as a formula for "successful" composition, exposure, focus, etc. is destructively constricting. Doing it just because others expect us to do it is an abdication of thought and responsibility. When my students ask me how to make an image “better” I always ask them what they are trying to express? In expressive photography, form should follow function. The way we put together a picture should be based on our own goals and purposes, not on a set of arbitrary aesthetic rules. In June, 2006, blogger Mike Johnston’s “Online Photographer” ghosted a series of delightful tongue-in-cheek "critiques" on the works of ten famous photographers – all of them satirizing mindless devotion to such “rules.” View them, and the spirited discussion that follows, at: http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/06/great-photographers-on-internet.html They may well change the way you think about photographic expression, and can provide an excellent context for understanding the reasons why I have come to teach as I do.
It's important to also note that there can be no such thing as a single “meaning” for any expressive photograph. Each image can have a number of meanings, depending upon who is looking at it. Although it is possible to sometimes agree on the general meaning of some pictures because of commonly shared context or thought patterns, it is important to keep in mind that truly expressive images usually trigger thoughts that stimulate the mind, emotion, and imagination of the viewer. Each person really determines their own version of what a picture says or does not say. In the end, all meaning is really what we call “subjective.” Expressive photography is an art form, and all art exists truly in the eye of the beholder.
To demonstrate these ideas, I share with you here nearly 2,500 expressive images that I have made over the years. Most of these images have been selected from my own travel archive, which are stored as travel articles at http://www.pnd1.smugmug.com/ . I analyze each of these examples in terms of the thinking, planning, and execution that went into them. Please keep in mind that these images should be viewed as teaching examples -- each of them working in partnership with the words I have written to accompany them. The examples should not be looked at as "stand-alone" images, or their learning context will be diminished. I hope my images and my comments will help passionate photographers interpret, rather than describe, what they see before them in their travels.
For more than 35 years, I have been teaching photographic communication in my workshops, and this cyberbook is intended to be an extension of that teaching. I offer these ideas here on the internet as a complimentary educational resource for passionate photographers around the world. Since August, 2003, these pages have been viewed four million times. I also look forward to extending and deepening this knowledge by welcoming my internet students to my comprehensive tutorials offered in Arizona.
This cyberbook goes far beyond a display of my own travel photography. I intend it as an interactive learning device, in essence an educational blog about visual literacy. I am offering these ideas to pbase members in the hopes that they will help me teach by leaving comments under these pictures, asking questions, and telling us how and why they feel these pictures work as expression. Since launching this cyberbook in 2003, I have responded to thousands of comments left by viewers in these galleries, and I invite you, if you are a pbase subscriber, to add your own views to this invaluable body of opinion and ideas. Also be sure to carefully study my latest "topics" listings, which contain links to some of pbase's most substantive and inspirational galleries. ( Just click on the "View Phil Douglis's topics" link on my "profile page" to see them.)
This is an educational site dedicated to helping photographers all over the world learn how to make expressive travel photographs. I am grateful to the hundreds of people who I've photographed in these images. Knowingly or unknowingly, by appearing in my photos, these people are indirectly helping others to learn and grow as photographic artists. I thank them all for their help. On the other hand, I would hope that none of them will object to being in my pictures. If so, I would hasten to remove them.
You may notice a significant body of comments in these galleries submitted by Celia Lim, a Malaysian graphics designer. I’ve known Celia for several years. Her commentary and questions on my images have already provoked substantive discussions, leading to much learning. She also kindly provided the html coding that allowed me to transform what was an off-the-shelf pbase template, into a legible, coherent and tasteful graphic presentation. You can view Celia's own pbase galleries at http://www.pbase.com/cecilialim
Each gallery is presented in "blog" style. A large thumbnail is displayed for each image, along with a detailed caption explaining how I intended to express my ideas. If you click on the large thumbnail, you can see it in its full size. If you are a pbase member, you can leave your comments and questions and I will respond to all of them. I hope you will be able to participate in the dialogue.
Learning about expressive travel photography is the ultimate value of these galleries. My own experience with digital cameras can be considered a roadmap to learning in its own right. I am no longer the same photographer I was when I began shooting digitally in 2001. My growth as an expressive photographer has also been intensified by what I've learned so far from the hundreds of comments my fellow photographers have left below my images. I will continually update these galleries as I travel the world, and I look forward to working together with many of you as you study expressive travel photography with me, both here in these galleries and perhaps eventually in person as well. The most recent additions can always be found at the beginning of each gallery. Welcome, enjoy, and learn. I ask not for your “votes,” but rather for your comments, your ideas, and your questions.
Phil Douglis, Director, The Douglis Visual Workshops, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
(In June of 2008, German composer Karsten Klemme used many of these images in a video. You can view it at http://www.jonsong.net/video/s-h-a-p-e.mpg )
click on thumbnails for full image
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