From the course: Narrative Portraiture: On Location in New York with Rodney Smith

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Photography is about the art of observation

Photography is about the art of observation

From the course: Narrative Portraiture: On Location in New York with Rodney Smith

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Photography is about the art of observation

Rodney Smith: The whole process of making this picture may be one or two rolls of film, and then I am done. I mean, I am not the person who would labor things; once I get it, I am on to the next thing. I know this is maybe not the best example of how spontaneous I am, but I am really spontaneous. Pictures that people look at and regard as totally composed and well thought out in advance are actually created ten seconds before the picture was even thought about. Chris Orwig: I like that comment. The photographs, they see informal, and they do, don't they? Especially these here. Yet they happen quickly. Well, how is that? One of the things I have discovered is that artists, they have opinions. They have taste. They have style. They are tuned into details that the rest of us overlook. It's almost like a musician, say a cellist. She can hear when one of those strings is out of tune. Or take that same musician. When she looks at sheet music, what we see are all the scribbles and circles…

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