Your Personal Photographic Vision

Natalia Vodianova by Paolo Roversi

Photography is a personal vision. It is an individual way of looking at the world and capturing a photo that tells a story. Your particular taste and vision will set you apart from other photographers and this is your precious gift. So have faith in your style!

A photographer’s vision can be seen repeated in their photos over and over again, like a brand. Fashion photographer Ellen Von Unwerth produces splendid images of sexy girls having lots of fun in wild colours and high contrast black and whites.

Photo Copyright Ellen Von Unwerth

Paolo Roversi creates soft focused dreams with his large format Polaroid camera and Richard Avedon was renowned for his simplicity, elegance and his famous white background. Ansel Adams searched for silence, perfection and majesty in his landscapes and Helmut Newton’s black and whites have come to symbolise strong sexy women.

Paolo Roversi’s  said this about his style “When I look at my pictures from 20 years ago, even when the  technique  of  the  light  is  very  different,  I  see  a  kind  of unity, and this surprises me. Even in my book, Nudi, the photos look like they were taken in the same place, in the same light, on the same day. But they were taken over the course of 10 to 12 years, in New York, London, Paris???

Photo Copyright Paolo Roversi

One thing that all these photographers have in common is that you can easily recognise their work without seeing their ‘byline’ (byline is a photographers or a journalists name printed alongside of their story in a magazine).  Their work is their byline.

They all have their own vision, their own style of lighting, emotions they wish to portray, their own presentation of their photos, mood of their work, personality and their own special way that they communicate with their sitter and this shows in the photos. 

So don’t ask yourself why you take the photos you do just take the photos you love! And try not to be influenced by everyone around. Believe in yourself.

“Be yourself, the world worships the original.” Jean Cocteau

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debra@dustjacket
10 years ago

Great post Carla..love the examples you chose!
xxx

Catherine
10 years ago

I love Roversi’s deep sculpted shots. Such beautiful work here. And Unworth’s cheekiness is always so catchy! Xcat

GuyHickey
10 years ago

Amazing post! Thank you for sharing :).

Derrick Mathews
Derrick Mathews
10 years ago

Love the simplicity of this post Carla. It has a wisdom that strikes right to the heart of how a photographer should develop their style and the quote is just perfect. Great examples as well in your choice of images and photographers.
Thank you once again for this inspiration today, I am grateful
Kind regards
Derrick

Peggy Braswell
10 years ago

well written for a lay person + I loved it. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

Liz Thomas
10 years ago

Wonderful sentiment! The examples of photos you picked are excellent!

Lauren
10 years ago

Beautiful, inspiring post, Carla! You always get right to the heart of the matter. Follow what you love and the “vision” will take care of itself. Trying to remind myself of that! 😉