2. Pre-Visualisation
The "fine print" is usually the culmination of a whole series of decisions or judgments that are made by the photographer. For example, one obvious choice relates to the subject matter of the photograph (this mountain? this person? this orange?). But even the choice of subject matter is accompanied by a whole host of accompanying subsidiary decisions: What framing? What lens? Filter? Do I use fill-flash? etc. The selections made may be conscious or unconscious, forced on us by circumstance (I cant back up any further to get more of the view in!), premeditated or accidental.
There is a school of thought that advocates making the image "in the mind's-eye" before the photograph is made. In other words, the photographer mentally visualises what the finished photo will look like - makes all the decisions - before the film is exposed. What follows is then a matter of craft/technique to realise on paper what was envisaged before the shutter was tripped. This is an aspect of image making that Ansel Adams called "pre-visualisation" (although I think he subsequently concluded that the "pre-" part may be redundant, and that "visualisation" may describe the process just as well).
Darkroom techniques and processes are an integral part of (analog) photography and decisions made regarding how the arsenal of darkroom tools should be employed when exposing the printing paper are equally important as decisions made when exposing the film. Fortunately, the act of printing from a negative is non-destructive. Print the negative one-way this time round, and the negative is still available to print a different way next time. Adams (an accomplished classical pianist) used a musical analogy: likening the negative to the score and the print to the performance of that score.
Advocates of "previsualisation" would say the scope for manipulation available in the darkroom helps the photographer to more accurately represent what was pictured in their mind when the shutter was tripped. For my part, I just wish my (pre)visualisation skills were that good :-). Most of the time, I simply react to the scene, and *know* or *feel* there's an image to be made (and then commence the struggle to realise it in the final print).
|
