Unless You Learn To See... Ernst Haas Shows You How.

how's it how's it ernst haas said that he wasn't interested in photographing new things but more interested in how to see things in a new way it's exciting to share photographers with you because when we look at their images when we see the way that they saw the world then we can get an insight into how we can take the lessons that they had learned and put them into our own photographs ernst haas was a master an absolute master of the language of photography he understood totally the vocabulary that he had at his disposal to create these images it's this language of photography that is so useful but so so rarely is it taught in any depth outside of photo schools and universities today as you look at the work of earn's tasks take on board how these photographs how they make you feel i want you to see how you can inject some of the ideas into your own images the middle of the 20th century was i thought an exceptionally interesting time for photography now of course there's always been experimentation throughout the history of photography but there was something about that period you know the 1950s 60s 70s that was exceptionally fertile there were so many photographers pushing boundaries you know people like harry callahan saw lighter fred herzog who would you're just changing the face of photography and of course we should add to that list ernst haas he'd been living in new york since 1951 and in 1953 had the distinction of actually being the first photographer to have an entire color story in life magazine now often when we look at photography from the past there's a bit of a problem especially when we're looking at a period that has a pleasing aesthetic point of view certainly for me the 1950s does is that we look through those images in my case certainly with a sense of fake nostalgia but that's kind of what i feel often rather than actually looking looking at the photographs we forget that these photographs were to the photographer photographs not of a period full of nostalgia but period that they were living in a current world so we kind of really need to take on board the first part of this language of communication within photography is that once you get past that veneer of nostalgia that you have to kind of remember that you know the photographer is taking photographs of everyday subjects of everyday scenes with a mansion that he doesn't want to photograph things in the same old fashion but to see those things in a new way as a photographer i don't really want i don't want you to sit there and go oh i haven't got any photograph you know i need to go somewhere else to take pictures because there's nothing inspiring here you can walk out your front door and be inspired by anything that's in front of you so long as you start to see it in a new way yeah i get stupidly excited about going to frankfurt but why should i have to travel all the way to germany to take photographs and be super inspired when i could actually just walk out my door and find awesome things in front of me if i just remember to take on board ernst harris's advice see things new now granted ernst asks you know he was new to new york you know then just moved there a few years previously so maybe one could say oh well there's there's there's a there's an excitement you know because this is new for him this is a city that is is different from his you know from his native austria and you sit and you go oh okay but when you look at the rest of his work when you look at his entire career and certainly also the work that came previously he is not just doing a one-off he's not just you know photographing everything he continues this throughout his entire career take a moment you know look at these photographs of new york and think about how they would compare to a city for example that you may be you know completely familiar with maybe your own city and and think about when was the last time that you approached photographing there not from a stylistic point of view like eren's task but from a point of view where you saw things differently that you took off the blinkers that were focusing you just in one direction [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] in the modern world there is an obsession with sharpness with pixel peeping and all that sort of technical perfection stuff now that's that's perfectly fine okay if that's what you want to do and that's the direction that you like then by all means but what i really get worried about is photographers especially new photographers who become fixated on this idea of perfection that every action must be frozen there must be anything and they're kind of worried about going in the opposite direction about kind of making mistakes as it were ernest haas was a huge fan of color photography and you know he used to use kodachrome and in the days it had very low iso which of course meant very long relatively long shutter speeds and that means if you're not holding the camera steady if you're not photographing a static subject then there's going to be some camera shake or some motion blur now you know in modern world people say wow that's a mistake that's wrong you know i don't want to have any of this blur within my images but despite the fact that it's maybe you could call it a technical failure to earn it was an expression that he was able to use within his photography that that unlocked a lot of new possibilities within the things that he saw already this is a topic that i discussed in one of the modules on my learning to see course when we look at how to understand the language of photography to improving our photographs by the way that we communicate through our images and the core of that is that you kind of need to unlearn the way that you see the world and ernest haas was doing this throughout his entire career he was teaching himself to unlearn and this lesson is is applicable to all of us because of course all of us see the world and we are all taught from the moment that we are born and first open our eyes that we should see and interpret the world in a certain way that way of thinking so influences the way that we take photographs the way that you see the world and just until you can get rid of that if you could throw it off it's going to hold your photography back think of the photographers whose images stick with us like ernst house's whose photographs worm their way into our visual library these are photographers who are artists they have learned to throw off the shackles of you know the the expected and they find the uniqueness around them and then they interpret that uniqueness through methods that are best suited to them you know to the message that they want to to portray and in ernst harris's case you know motion blur and and camera shaking stuff was it was a huge part of that but also was seeing the world from different perspectives by not conforming to ordinary conventions great examples of these are his abstract photographs so often they are of mundane objects but i'd love you to look at these examples and and think about how you can be also inspired to see possibilities in things around you by photographing them in just ever so slightly different ways [Music] [Music] earlier i talked about nostalgia in photographs and this is something that's been playing on my mind you know for a few days since i did this video where i talked about standing out with your photographs by using the the purple cow method of marketing that seth godin talks about which i will link to at the end of this video and it's interesting that in the modern world there are so many places especially on instagram and online where people are you know they have the capability to share their photographs for free essentially and reach a huge audience but of course to get noticed so many of the people feel that it's it's got to be a case of who can shout the loudest with their images who can make the most noise who can make the most attention-seeking image out there so we get lots of shouty photographs and then you know i'm looking through the photographs on ernst website and i'm thinking about what to say about the photos and a thought crossed my mind that if you're like me and you cut your teeth on film cameras they used to come with a printed manual that was often quite you know it was obviously quite it was it was full of photographs that were pretty average you know nothing major they were they were photographs that sort of illustrated concepts you know on how to use the dials on on your on your new toy um but the photographs didn't stand out they weren't like oh my god like amazing they were for one of a better word they were kind of like amateurish so i feel that the reason they did this is that a the style of pictures in those days was very different and but also is because they were something that people could a you know aspire to they weren't so like beyond you know anything and that you know somebody with a little bit of in you know instruction could could achieve and so when you look at ernst harris's photographs from this period and you combine this with the noisiness that goes on in today's world where the photographs are all sort of full of post-processing gymnastics and shouty that ernest horse's photographs are quiet that they have that aesthetic that you see in the old camera manuals i would be interested i'm going to put a challenge out to you that if we need to stand out by being different why is it that we don't take our photographs and go back back to basics almost and look at photographers like ernst haas who are not photographing the world's most amazing tree or they're not going to the most instagramable place of 2022 but they are just photographing that the average everyday things in a way that isn't shouting but is just whispering to us quietly now perhaps you know in social media world that will never fly but maybe if we're more comfortable with this idea that we don't have to shout with our photographs that we will get back in touch with what i find is so beautiful about photographs from that period and those images in the camera manuals they remind me of a time when photographs they didn't have to be worked on for hours in photoshop they didn't have to be some mind-blowing amazing thing they could just be simply themselves look at the photographs here not one of them is shouting or screaming at you hey hey look at me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] freeing yourself from the constraint of what is expected of you as a photographer if you if you believe that technical perfection is expected of you is extremely liberating as a creative it's you know because it's easy to learn technical aspects it's easy to follow that checklist but giving your inner artist a voice embracing your creativity needs that you need to challenge assumptions about not just the way that you see the world but how you interpret what you see around the world and ernest haas did that for better or worse in my mind earnest task was always kind of like let's say broadly speaking a street photographer and as i was researching this video i saw so many beautiful and amazing photographs that weren't street you know they crossed all sorts of of genres and this is a great reminder that you know we should always challenge our conceptions about what a photographer is or what do they represent you know it just goes to show challenging the way that you think about things is the best way to develop as a photographer and my learning to see course is on discount from now until the end of march and there's a link in the description box that will give you 10 off it would be great absolutely awesome for you to be there and for you for me to help you unlock the potential that you have within you as a photographer by giving you the tools to unlearn seeing so that you can start to see the world as an artist thank you once again ever so much for being here it is an absolute pleasure to share these photographs with you and i hope that you feel inspired

Channel: The Photographic Eye

Views: 209,347

Keywords: Photography, photography education, photography ideas, photographer

Id: X8qMDGzQPXc

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 25 2022