When I was learning photography, and for many years after, I practiced “pre-visualization”. The concept was codified by Ansel Adams and likely referred mostly to printing said picture, but over the years it became more about imagining how the photograph would look before making it. Later I used words like “intentional” when I talked about my expectations for what I was going to make next. As my good friend John in Scotland might say, “I’m really chuffed by how this picture looks just as I imagined”. This skill set has served me well for all this time, but I am beginning to think about it differently. 

What occurs to me these days is knowing before making the picture what it will look like removes any possibility of me making an honest picture. 

Right now I am pre-visualizing what all of you are saying after reading the above. “So, Ray what exactly do you mean by an honest picture?” 

Photography is really good at recording exactly what is in front of the camera, it is very literal. Since their invention cameras have been able to document much better than they can interpret what is in front of them, even as we are suggesting the photograph can speak to how we feel at the time of its making.  

I wonder about this, all the time these days. I wonder if knowing what the picture will look like amounts to me looking for a picture I’ve already made, or one I’ve seen that has been made. 

I’ve not the answer my friends, I am striving these days to think of the pictures as documents of what catches my attention. I’m printing small objects filled with a memory of mine that might spark a memory of yours, a story in your mind. 

As always I invite your thoughts, join the conversation. 

Be well,

Ray