With the first of the postulates of (en)Visionography I am starting a new series, that will include my thoughts, other ideas I admire, tips and short pieces of advice regarding VISION and how to create your personal photography – (en)Visionography.
Vision is such a difficult concept to explain, a concept I analyze in depth in my (en)Visionography workshops, but I’ll try here to make it easy for everyone to understand it and help you find your own personal VISION and how to express it in your photography to create something more than photography, to create photography based on YOUR own personal vision, your (en)Visionography.
I had started this series a while ago as the “The Postulates of Vision” but the series name slowly transformed into “The Postulates of (en)Visionography”.
Why?
The main reason is because these thoughts have become more and more deep and extended and they are not only related to vision anymore, but to a wider expression of it, to what I call (en)Visionography, which is a personal kind of fine art photography, a photography about the artist much more than a photography about the subject he photographs. This is the base concept of (en)Visionography and with these postulates I want to make it easy to understand so others can use in their process of creation what I discovered and what helps me find photography so fulfilling and such a great tool for expressing my artistic self.
More thoughts will come after this first. They will be enunciated in the form of postulates, in a concise form so they are as clear as possible, and I hope they will give you inspiration and help you get deeper in interpreting your photography and creating a personal fine art photography, which is what I call (en)Visionography.
You can subscribe to my blog to receive the updates on this article, as I will be adding new postulates to it.
The 1st Postulate of (en)Visionography
“Inspiration is not to be found outside, but inside yourself”
What you see in the outside world is only a pretext for you to feel something about what you see and be inspired to translate it into images by using vision. So, next time you will be searching for inspiration, you know what to do. Don’t search to find it by looking at what others do, but look inside yourself to find your real vision. It’s there where you will find the answer.
The 2nd Postulate of (en)Visionography
“Have you ever been in love?
Yes?
Then you can be a fine art photographer”
– Alfred Stieglitz talking to Minor White –
When young Minor visited Alfred Stieglitz in New York sometime in the thirties, he still had many questions about his own direction and whether or not he could be truly a great photographer.
When he expressed his doubts, Stieglitz asked him the question: “Have you ever been in love?” Minor replied: “Yes I have.” Then Stieglitz said”Then you can be a photographer.”
I’m tweaking a bit what Stieglitz said and I’m replacing here “photographer” with “fine art photographer” because I see fine art photography as something different than classical photography. What he said though is one of the things that define (en)Visionography – If you’ve ever been in love you know what means EMOTION. This is what a fine art photographer, an (en)Visionographer, creates. This is what the viewer feels when looking at a fine art photograph. That is what makes it a true fine art photograph.
The 3rd Postulate of (en)Visionography
“Creating fine art photography is discovering yourself.
Your REAL self.”
Fine art photography is more than showing how the world is. It is more than mirroring the world. It is even more than interpreting the world. Fine art photography is about the artist and not necessarily about the world.
(en)Visionography is transforming the vision of an artist, his thoughts and emotions, into an image. This image is much more than a way for the artist to know the world or to interpret it. It is a tool for the artist to know him or herself. In (en)Visionography what we do is discovering ourselves. Our REAL selves. The world and the subject we choose to photograph are tools we use together with photography, in order to get to the core of what we are as artists, as humans, from a spiritual and emotional point of view.
In my mentoring courses I have seen people transforming from photographers to artists, I’ve seen them going from recording reality and trying to present it as well as the can, to looking inside of themselves and showing to the others the world they found there, instead of just showing them the reality they see. It is an amazing process to live for my students and it is so thrilling for me to follow it and be a part of their transformation.
More thoughts coming soon. Stay in touch…
www.envisionography.com
More about VISION in my “Guide to Vision” and in the book “From Basics to Fine Art”
Julia Anna Gospodarou - (en)Visionographer
Julia Anna Gospodarou is an internationally acclaimed photographer, architect with a Master degree, author and highly sought-after educator, teaching workshops and lecturing around the world. Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, author of the best-selling book From Basics to Fine Art - Black and White Photography , with high distinctions in the most important photography competitions worldwide (International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year, World Photography Awards SWPA and Hasselblad Masters finalist, as well as 80+ more awards), widely published internationally in books and magazines, Julia is passionate about the art in photography and striving to spread it into the world.