^Tap dancing at Iowa State College, Ames, wartime Iowa.
What is the meaning of this photo? To show the legs, the ladies' steps in tune or the glossy wood floor?
The meaning of photos, or "meaningless photos" to be exact, is an mind-boggling proposition repeatedly put forward by a fellow photographer at dpreview forum in a bellicose vein. Or I should say a mind-expanding proposition?
That fellow photographer obviously mistakes that there are some photographs which should be categorised as meaningless like a photo of an old man sitting on a bench.
This could be an observation too well thought out of the box, and of mind. I emailed the test to SY, the promising young photographer from Taiwan, asking him, "What is the meaning of photo to you?"
His answer came like a swift dart aimed straight at the red heart of the dartboard, "You've to ask yourself. Meanings are different from one person to another", which was what I had in mind.
If someone ever again points at your photo and says that it is meaningless, ignore it, sneer at it and let it be said and forgotten. A photo may have weaknesses, but the meaning of it is specific to the photographers and special to some viewers.
So don't be deterred to take photos of any theme and meaning specific to you. Lawrence Lai, Hong Kong's top photographer in selling his works on the Peak and in Singapore, humbly (and rightly) says that a lot many other photographers take better works than he. One of the secret in his success is that he believes in his artistic talent and the outcomes of it. I have personally met him, seen his non-commercial works and can testify that any one of you can be as successful in terms of your works.
Instead, avoid using cameras with meaningless functions, not least if you're just into photography. Those silly inventions will only serve to distract you. I hope the like of the following features will not venture into the territory of serious compacts, namely, projector function (Nikon's if I'm not mistaken), self-shutter-activation-at-smiling-faces (Sony's), both-side-LCD-screens (Samsung's), cartoonisation (Casio) and you name it.
These functions remind me of a friend of mine who was approached by an inventor with a guitar which let the player played different cords at a press of the buttons attached on it instead of by the proper way. It will just strip the player off the skills in playing a real guitar.
That's really should be called meaningless, much in the same measure as the meaningless-photo proposition.
(The non-copyrighted photo is extracted from the Congress Library, USA)
Comments