This essay is about the statement ‘A photograph is made, not taken’. The essay will be used to discuss the statement in comparison to the photographic construction used to build and create images. I will be discussing the topics of staged vs spontaneous methods; photography in science, how an image can be created and the lead up decisions towards each image displaying your ideas. This topics will suggest different ways to use photography as a creation and will show what we can now learn because history changed and we learned more about photography.

My first topic to discuss is the ‘staged vs spontaneous’. Photographs can be created in multiple ways including staged photography; for example: studio, on location, planned, created sets. Each photograph is planned in these environments, from props, model castings, lighting, clothing and even the location is a choice. All this creates and makes an image, with each decision planned. Most people who have careers in the creative arts create mood boards for each detail, this helps to plan and organise.

For example, the image below has been planned, from the way the model stands to the styling of the clothes surrounding her, or how her hair is styled to fall straight and what the model’s wearing herself. The location was scouted before the shoot, as many other locations were. The photographer may have chosen this area to shoot because of the graffiti and lines across the wall. The graffiti was chosen because of the different colours of reds, blacks and pinks, etc. This is because the colours shown match the colours of the clothing. It also invites the viewer in to the image by showing an unusual choice of background, creating a narrative of a woman hiding who she really is, and this affects how the clothes are portrayed, bringing up the question of who she is? And what these clothes mean to her?

Creating a photograph is like creating a story, what’s this woman’s narrative? She’s hiding her face meaning she’s hidden from society herself, as well expressing a story of how women sometimes feel in the world. Her story is controlled by the photographer’s audience, anything could happen when people use their imagination and show how they feel about this piece of work.

The quote ‘Photographing appears to be nothing more than concretized seeing, and seeing is believing’ can be found in the book ‘The Directorial Mode: Notes toward a definition’, 1976 by A.D Coleman. This statement suggests that photographing is nothing but making an idea reality, which I feel is true because we use our ideas and expand them every day. That’s how we create,

ideas surround us all the time, all we need to do is piece them together and recreate each idea collectively. However, that is how all art is created.

Dazed. 2018. Mark Borthwick - ‘Not In Fashion’ | Dazed. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/gallery/2946/0/mark-borthwick-not-in-fashion. [Accessed 07 April 2018].

Whereas, when shooting spontaneous, each detail is on the spot; the people, the emotions, clothing, the location. It all depends on who’s there that day; what’s happening, etc.

An example for a spontaneous photographer is Henri Cartier-Bresson, who is most famous for his ‘Place de L’europe’ piece. This photograph is of a man jumping mid-air across a lake/river. This piece is created on the spot just as the person steps and jumps off the pieces of wood. This piece shows the sense of time management needed to create a perfect image as gravity pushes the man down after jumping. This man’s emotion and movement is real, the action, the objects surrounding him, each and every ripple in the water is unique to this point in time. The image perfectly processed through the camera as seen by the clear matching reflection in the river/lake of the man and the buildings behind him.

When creating a spontaneous photograph, you use your eyes and your mind to follow the movement of your subject and capture a once in a lifetime image.

Whilst others will try to recreate the image, they will never get the same reaction than the original real photograph. Magnum Photos. 2018. The Mind's Eye • Henri Cartier-Bresson • Magnum Photos. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/the-minds-eye/. [Accessed 06 April 2018].

The second point I would to discuss towards the quote “a photograph is made not taken” is science photography. Science photography can include many things including: natural disasters, public events (for example the first man on the moon or the founding of a new energy source, etc), animals, the human body, etc.

For example, when you go to the hospital and have an x-ray. An x-ray is a type of photograph/film that uses light to show the bones in body, or your organs. These images are created to show important parts of your body and shows if something is wrong. For example, if you broke your leg, an x-ray can show which bones and how. The x-ray is shown using black & white film paper. An x-ray could help someone a lot by finding extreme diseases early, like brain tumours, etc.

Science photography uses light and darkness, as well as colour. It uses multiple ideas and stages. As well as being staged for creation, it is used for hopes of achievement, for sick and the healthy. Science is all about learning, just like photography, each piece needs to be used correctly in order for it to work. Science included many things created, a photograph and camera included, if it weren’t for science we would not have expanded in art and if we did not have science photography we would not know how to treat patients in our hospitals, all the information would be unknown, whilst patients die of unknown causes.

Although, science is made up of facts, figures and real situations, it can also be staged and planned months before. For example, an earthquake can be measured and investigated to find out how long it may last and how bad is or could be, seeing where else it may affect and what’s causing it. We know when natural disasters are going to happen most of the time.

When taking a scientific photograph, you must find your object, your focus! You have to find the location, without finding the focus or the location, you

have nothing, an image is made up of creativity. You need to move, find the perfect angle and make sure your image is in focus. In A.D Coleman’s book ‘The Directorial Mode: Notes toward a definition’, 1976, he quotes “The most important photography is most emphatically not art” this suggests he believes science is not art, however when you photograph an object there can be multiple details to make it art, for example wildlife like animals are art, they build up of many detailed pieces and show beauty and emotion, colour, etc. Each image we build up whether its portraiture or set designs, etc each photograph is made of the simple contextualized things we look for in an image, even in science photography. Another example, is a rock, it is built up of many textures and colours, but can still create an interesting art piece. photography is what you make and create it to be, it is not taken, it is produced from your ideas, your thoughts, you chose to create that photograph, right then and there.

My third point is how a photograph is created. There are many ways an image can be created: using film, using a digital camera, using chemicals to create a cyanotype, using props, models, locations, studios, etc. There are also many ways to print, on photographic paper, on film, in colour, in black & white, fabric transfer, on labels, etc.

Opinions on Pinhole camera. 2018. Opinions on Pinhole camera. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.writeopinions.com/pinhole-camera. [Accessed 08 April 2018].

This is a pinhole camera it uses light and darkness to contrast an image on to the light sensitive paper, when talking about creating a photograph, there are many ways to do so, however when the camera was the first invented, it was created to mirror an image onto the paper covered with the chemical sensitive to ultraviolet lights upside down. Creating a photograph is not always easy as clicking a button, it uses

strategy and time to create a well-exposed image. This a lot of work towards the image is stays calm and still, making sure not to move or you’ll create a badly exposed image.

There are many ways to create a photograph you could plan every single piece in the image (like the background, the clothes and so on) or you can be spontaneous and create the picture on the spot, no editing and no control.

There are many parts to a photograph, the people in the image, the location, the background, the props, the clothes, shoes, accessories, makeup, hair and so on. There many ways a photographer could plan each picture: a few examples of these are: mood boards, PowerPoints, shopping (online or instore) get a feel of what type of photograph you’re looking for, do research online of different styles of photography there is, you could decide you want to use old films to create a blurred sort of look of aged perfection. There’s so many ways you just need to think research and look, photography is all about the creation that you make and how far you can take it.

nong vang :: online portfolio Bruce Preston Photography | . 2018. nong vang :: online portfolio Bruce Preston Photography | . [ONLINE] Available at:http://nongvang.com/portfolio/brucepreston/. [Accessed 08 April 2018].

This is an example of a mood board created digitally it’s simple to make and uses text to describe the style of images he is looking for. He has displayed a colour palette in the corner of the mood board to show the types of colours he wants to blend into his images. The photographer has used adverts and movie print screengrabs to present

the elegance of the women and the smart modern-dressed males. He uses the logos in the corner of the board to match against his images, if you’re creating for another company you need to know your main colours and what style they are looking for and what you can connect with that.

A.D Coleman talks about the directorial mode in his book ‘The Directorial Mode: Notes toward a definition’, 1976, he states that “The issue here is not whether the photographer manipulated the print but the subject”, this suggests that an image was first created account of events during that time and that the photographer is not a director and their model was not an actor. The photograph was not created for fashion or the model, but science. However, as time has moved on and the average photograph has moved on in

history, so has the reputation of photography as an art and a career. Photography is now a well known career and the average photographer has become a director, each piece has to be chosen with ideas to expand and create.

The word ‘create’ means to be artistic, to make something or to remake and follow someone else’s idea. The word ‘taken’ suggests stealing and taking something away. When you make a photograph, you recreate what you see in your eyes and capture the moment it’s yours, you created it.

In conclusion, there are many ways to create a photograph and not a lot of options to take a photograph. Each image can be created using different ways of planning, like mood boards. As well vary between different subjects: for example, art, science and so on. I have talked about all the things needed to create a photograph like a location, a model, a centre of focus, etc. How science has used photography in art, people’s health and the history of the world. We talk about photography as a historic step in art, as we learn more about the subject and how to create a career in it. As well as finding out the different ways to print and display your work.

So, to conclude you need to creative to organise a photograph, it is not as simple as clicking a button or a switch. You need initiative, ideas, an expansion on these ideas. Whether its spontaneous or staged you still need to be there to take the image and keep it in focus.

BibliographyMartin KazmaierHorst Sixty Years of Photography1991Thames and Hudson Ltd, Uk and Rizzoli international publications, inc, New York

Ewing Brandow Edward Steichen: in high fashion The conde Nast Years 1923-19372008Thames and Hudson ltd, uk

A.D ColemanThe directorial mode 1981Vicki ed, Goldberg