An artist friend of mine who I deeply respect recently told me that art is just learning to see. Everything we do is just learning, and practicing for the next time we create. We pass things everyday that we just run by, never stopping to notice. But these things are there, they catch light, contrast with their surroundings, and every hour their shadow stretches to a new length. And we miss them. It seems as though when you feel like you are out of ideas that you are empty. But there truly are ideas all around us. This is why I try to approach photo shoots with minimal props or preconceptions. Sometimes I have this picture in my head before I go...I think that there is a path I will follow during a session, which is kind of a comfort if I am nervous or don't know someone, these little things are like ice breakers to me- portals to the unknown..people usually will respond with their true spirit. I must say though, I am always so shocked when these photographs I couldn't have planned just jump out at me, I have a kind of giddy excitement just not knowing what I will find or discover, I love the new or seeing the overdone and overused in a new way.
Every family, individual, child..tells me a different story in pictures. Even the most reserved, conventional "portraits" tell me so much. I search for the little something that lets me inside that person's personality for a second. I love seeing how light hits people, how they finally warm up to me and we make that connection, between photographer and subject. This is the same experience when I see something inanimate that I hadn't noticed before. Something mundane that has caught the perfect shadow, or a ray of an orange sunset. Ok enough. Here are some examples of surprises....
These images above copywright 2009, 2010 Jennifer Dagdagan Photography
