Landscape Photography Magazine

“Is photography about taking a picture of something or taking a picture about something? Do we start making an image with a “Concept” in mind or do we just search for an aesthetically pleasing subject? Guy Tal has the story”

When teaching photography workshops I always emphasize the importance of starting an image with a concept; the thing that stops you in your tracks and whispers in your ear “there is something here worth photographing”. A concept has no visual characteristics, and the role of the photographer is to find a way of expressing them through line, form, color and composition. What the concept does have is meaning:  a message, an emotion, a statement, a metaphor, or a story. The resulting image is not a picture of something but, rather, a picture about something.

Regrettably, many photographers never consider the need for an image to have a concept. In fact, it seems that most pursue the…