The Most Influential Photographer Ever

Oh, there is a uh there's a photographer who is so massively influential, who's affected every single person who is watching this video and yet they never get any praise. And when you come down to it, that photographer we owe massive debt because without them we we would never pick up a camera and that photographer celebrated in a book called Midury Memories. It's by the anonymous project. And I look at these photographs. It's a collection of orphaned, shall we say, images that have been collected over the years. This sort of family life, you know, the 50s and 60s through to about sort of the '7s or so. And that's the thing, they are anonymous. They are not of a certain photographer. It's not the school of, you know, code of chrome or what have you. They are simply average everyday people who have taken a photograph of their family doing family stuff and in doing so have captured a little slice of of time. Now, this book is a celebration of that anonymous photographer, the most influential photographer because it is the person, it is the person in our family or our social group who had a camera who said, "I'm going to take some photographs and and introduced us to the world of taking photographs." Not not snapshots on a phone, but saying like, "Hey, this is this is a cool thing. I'd like to show you how to do this cool thing. Do you like I said yes. And in my own case, it was a combination of my grandpa Willie and my father. Both of whom were were firmly in the in the keen amateur group of photographers. You know, grandpa was, I believe, in a a camera club in Glasgow. Uh and and dad, I think, uh before I came along, had the dark room under the stairs kind of stuff. I had no he had a dark room in his in his bum and dad's lot. Those are the people who have inspired us. Think about your own inspirational photography. Who is the person who introduced you to photography? And the reason that I'm asking this is there's something important in that moment. There is a massively influential using the word influential quite a lot right now, right? a massively influential uh shape, movement, direction that is I think worth understanding as a photographer and that is our why why do we take photographs think it was and I've probably mispronounced his name but Simon Syninek Sim talked about like the why once you discover your why then your purpose purpose becomes clear focus direction becomes clear if you're sitting there you know why why do you ask me Alex why do you take photographs I take photographs because I love to see the things that other people can't see that are staring them in the face that's why that's why I love taking photographs it is a medium that I can take a thing that is common place to all and just boom, here's a picture. People go, "Wow, I didn't see that." That that's my why, right? Think about like what is what is yours? Now that why stems from what I loved about photography to begin with that you could take and this is B this is film days that you could take a camera like this put some magic film in it take a photograph and it's captured in there that little moment is captured and and then you get the print back or if you go further you develop the print you see the print come to life in the dark room in the developing that that a a friend of mine a guy called Steven Taylor he used the phrase the alchemy of photography it was that alchemy of photography I think it's a wonderful expression that grabbed me because it did feel like magic and it still does albeit in a slightly lesser you know [laughter] a less sort of alchemic alchemic a alchemic way, a a less wet way. It's a bit more obviously it's a bit more instant. Some of the magic has gone, but it's still remains that that joy of like taking photographs and and if I look at the pictures in the synonymous project, it it raises another question. Yes, these are the people the people with the cameras are, you know, they're taking photographs and and hopefully they inspired some other people, you know, their kids, their siblings, their parents, whoever to get into photography, cuz photography is a wonderful thing. But there's something else in here, as I said, when a lot of people haven't chat with me, uh, and they go, "Hey, Alex, can you help me with photographs? You know, I'm going to join the TPU tribe. you know, am I good enough to to be there and stuff like that. I've said, look, everybody has some talent. Everybody has an ability to take a a good photograph. Within the TP tribe, we find that nugget, that little, you know, little seed of greatness. Sometimes it needs to be teased down. So, but it's there in everybody and it can be watered and nurtured and grown into a good photograph. But for so many people, they never take that step. And if you want to take that step, there's a link in the description box, but there's also a QR code on the screen here. Little second day can see what we're all about. They never look at their work. Now this this book, the anonymous project. Now clearly it is a collection of people's photographs. It is curated. They're not just going to put random pictures in here. Just say, "Hey, look, here's a book." The pictures have a certain something. They have bits. And there's there's a photograph here that rather conveniently. And this is that was not planned. It opens up on this one. This is by far the favorite picture in this book for me. It is uh three kids on a street in a downpour. Cars driven past. Clearly there's a lot of rain. Can hear it. Now this photograph has got nothing to do with me. I did not live in America in what looks like the mid60s. I have played in the rain like this as a child in South Africa. We had quite a few rainstorms like this, but I wasn't there. But there's something about this picture. It is a it's it is obviously it's unscripted. It is a a slice of life. It is that moment that just passed, move the car away. It doesn't work. You know, have one of those kids gone. It doesn't really work. It It just It It captured the magic in a bottle. Now, or lightning in a bottle. Yeah. Captured the lightning in a bottle. Somebody comes to to the TP tribe or what have you. And with any of these photographs and says, "This this is what I do." And what often happens is they show well they don't show this is there's no application thing. you're not sure, but you know, if I'm chatting with someone and I get to see like a whole load of of their work, often they hide pictures away. I want to say they hide them, but they, you know, they they keep them in in a Lightroom folder that's really not they don't, you know, they think they're anything of these pictures and you see them, you go, "Hang on, this photograph you've done there, that's so cool. That's really," and you ask them, you say, "What what have you done here?" And yeah, often they they they're not able to sort of put it into words. It's understandable. We, you know, we're not professional art critics here. We don't have the vocabulary to say, well, you know, this photograph it represents the, you know, the the juxosition of man and machine working in harmony to dominate the natural world and then by doing so gives us a picture of a woman on a field, right? Doesn't have it. don't have any of that stuff. But but what we do have is a starting point. I think with all of these photographers, some more so than others, there there's a there's a clue here about where they could start honing their skill, where they can start improving. There's the look at this the photograph of this this uh oh, more heavy books. this sailor with his little like pipe was co playing popey right but look at the composition look at the framing right there say oh do you know more like this do this whatever you felt when you were taking that picture do more of that it's that process this comes from understanding a why is it that you enjoy about taking pictures. What is it that that that magic that the person who introduced you to seeing photographs to taking images? What have they helped you with? This there's a study here. I really hope I could find it on the website because it's great. There's a there's a there's a photograph here. Let me if I hold it up to to camera. There we go. that I love that. Look at these two people. I mean, firstly, I I like mid-century modern design aesthetic. Anyway, but look at this this this picture. In in some respects, it reminds me of, you know, American Gothic sort of thing, which of course there's nothing like it. But what I what I look at this and I go, that's that's kind of a cool photograph. is that it has a very static, very formal feel to it and yet it isn't formal and it isn't what would I say posed. I mean I'm going to say it's not posed. They're probably just sitting there and you know the guys go oh just they maybe they came to visit you know they've come to visit and say well we'll sit in those armchairs. Oh, take a picture of you. Uh, George and Ethel, haven't seen you in ages. And they're sitting there going, "Well, I must." But the result of the photograph has a very quiet, very structured feel about it that I find I find it intriguing. It's almost almost like a like it also could be a liinal space. Obviously, we need people out of it, but the photograph works beautifully. It may not always just be obvious about what's working in your photographs, where the where the seed is, you know, how to discover it, how to nurture, how to bring it out. And but you you get I think you get this from being around other people who are willing to look at your photographs with with an honesty which we don't really get I feel from showing photographs to to our parents to our siblings to our spouses to our friends because they I think They they want they want to be supportive. They can be support. They have been inspirational. You know those people interested campus. Yes. They like hey here's the thing. Go go go run with it. But we need more than them. We need more than our spouse. We need people who can look at the photographs that we have that we present to them and say this is what I've taken. And instead of going, well, you could have cropped the thing on the left out. You could have done this or you could have done that and you know, your exposures are all wrong and stuff like that. Is to look at the photographs instead and say, "Okay, right, Alex, I'm talking to myself now. Alex, love this. I love that. I love that part of the photograph. This is really cool. Look at the way you framed this part. That's all I that's working is looking at positive things instead of having this nonsense that so I'm going to soap box a little bit instead of this nonsense that everybody gets in places like you know online where they go asking for feedback like I've taken this photograph you know what what can I have that photograph that I love the kids in the rain how many people would say it's out of focus you know your composition's all wrong you should have done this, you should have done that. Everybody on the internet, and I I I wear this hat as well, wants to tell people what's wrong with their work. They just want to say, "Hey, you've done this wrong. You've done wrong." And and often it's because they want to just prove how much they think they know. In a in another video, I talked about having pylons in a landscape and how at 19 years old, I'd read it somewhere and went, "Oh, yes. Well, you shouldn't have pylons in a landscape because I'd heard it somewhere, but I just wanted to to find an avenue, an outlet to tell somebody else about a thing that I knew that I thought made me sound better. If you bumped into all that kind of stuff, if you find places that you want somebody just to look at your work to say, "Ah, I love the frame. And I love the way that you put the people in front of this thing or that thing. That works really nicely. Whether you've done it on purpose or not is not the case. You've managed to do it. Something inside you instinctively told you to do something in a certain way. And if you want those kind of discussions, if you want those sort of eyeballs on your work, come check us out in the TP tribe. Links on the screen. There's a QR code here. Come check us out. And uh yeah, it's 7-day free trial as I've mentioned before. Love to see you there. Thank you ever so much for watching and uh I'll see you again soon.