The Importance of Meaning

Last week, I had the opportunity to watch a number of the online lectures in Dave Cross’s “Photoshop Creativity Virtual Summit”. The talks were free to watch for 48 hours unless you purchased a ‘VIP Pass’, in which case you are given lifetime access as well as additional lecture notes and bonus videos. I hadn’t planned on becoming a paid ‘VIP Pass-holder’, but the few lectures that I listened to were so good that I purchased VIP status so that I could hear them all and refer back to them whenever I wanted.

The first two presentations were about the meaning of your work and, to a lesser degree, about writing the much feared ‘Artist’s Statement’. Sounds pretty ‘touchy-feely’, doesn’t it? But these lectures by Brooke Shaden and Daniel Gregory were truly excellent and quite convincing about the importance of recognizing (and ultimately articulating and writing) the meaning and message behind your work. The combination of lectures lasted about two hours, and I thought I would write some bullet points that I took away from the talks that readers might find useful and start thinking about themselves:

• There is always meaning and message in the work, whether you are conscious of it or not. It helps the work for you to be aware of what that message is.

• The message need not be huge and lofty. It can be as simple as ‘I want to show the beauty in nature,’ though the more you can drill down and be more specific, the more your work will benefit.

• Everyone’s message and meaning is important; don’t fall into the trap that yours is too simple or unimportant.

• Once you know what the meaning of your work is, you can start to think about how to best visually express it, as opposed to proceeding randomly.

• Some good ways to begin your exploration of what your work is about (assuming you haven’t really worked that out yet): ask yourself what your ‘core values’ are, look at your work and write down single words that your favorite images make you feel, think about those words and perhaps take the ones that seem to really stick with you and see if they can make phrases that make sense - phrases become sentences, sentences paragraphs, and paragraphs ultimately become an Artist’s statement.

• Don’t lie to yourself. Be yourself. No artspeak! Keep it simple.

• There can be more than one message, but generally, one message per project.

• The meaning and message that your work contains will, and should, evolve over time, just as we all do as people.

• How to tell if your message is successful: Are you having meaningful discussions about the work with your audience (what camera lens, f stop, shutter speed, etc., did you use is not meaningful discussion)?

I have started to think about my own work in this way. I am only at the beginning stages of the process. The simplest version of my message was that I wanted to show the beauty in nature. But, as I think about the words that stick with me and best describe what I find in the images I like best, it becomes more about wanting to show the mystery or somewhat mystical side of nature, the part that makes you want to introspect. There is more work for me to do in this regard, but the message does start to help mold the where, when, and how that I find useful in making photographs.

Have you thought about these issues in your own work? If not, it might be of use to start that internal discussion. If you have, I would love to hear what your thoughts are, even if in the earliest stages, in the comments below.

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