Start Here: On Bruce Barnbaum's The Art of Photography
There's a saying that those who can…do, and those who can't…teach. That's bullshit. Case in point: Bruce Barnbaum. Barnbaum is what I think of as a classical photographer, by which I mean his images have such great texture and depth that few photographers seem to attempt today. His images are truly inspiring as he uses them throughout his book to illustrate the topic at hand.
I don't recall when I first picked up The Art of Photography, but I've read it multiple times and dip into it still. The subtitle is telling: "A Personal Approach to Artistic Expression." It certainly feels personal with discussions of enthusiasm, visualizing your images before you make them, and using your intuition. Rather than just telling us what to do, Barnbaum puts his own work in context:
But my response to modern urban structures has another side, too. Unlike my positive reaction to cathedral architecture, I dislike the architecture of all but a very few commercial buildings. They are cold, austere, impersonal, and basically ugly…to me, they are the corporate world’s strongest statement of its disinterest in humanity and its outright contempt of nature. I have attempted to convey these feelings through my compositions and their stark geometries.
Then, under the heading of “Judging Your Own Personal Response:”
…How do you respond to your interests and how do you wish to convey your thoughts photographically? This is a more deeply personal question than “What interests you?” It requires not only knowing what interests you, but also just how it affects you and how you would like viewers to respond to your photographs.
His chapter on composition is fascinating. Here Barnbaum teases out the elements of composition and their relationship to one another to create meaning. No Fibonacci, no rule-of-thirds or other so-called rules, just discussion of how to envision a scene.
“…Rules are foolish, arbitrary, mindless things that raise you quickly to a level of acceptable mediocrity, then prevent you from progressing further…
The Art of Photography is valuable to any photographer no matter the medium, yet, I'd say there's a film-photography sensibility. The chapters on the Zone System are some of the best I've read on the topic. These are three chapters considering exposure, developing, and printing of a film negative. His approach, here again, is personal, as he digs in to his methods that have improved his photography over the years, taking a holistic approach beginning with pre-visualization of the final print and how to get it there.
Following those chapters are two specific to digital exposure and development with digital tools. While in my view "Digital Zone System" is a misnomer, he seems to want to put film and digital on the same footing. Indeed, Barnbaum says he shoots color work in digital, while using film for black-and-white, because of their inherent dynamic range (I do wonder if that holds given today's cameras, like the Leica Monochrom line!). Nonetheless, those chapters are not the strongest of the book, owing in part to the ever-changing nature of digital tools.
When I was a kid, I was astonished by the work of Ansel Adams. Those days, I knew nothing about the world of photography and I ascribed his work to some kind of magic. What I learned later was that Adams carried a deep knowledge with him that he likely had to figure out along the way. His three volume set of books, The Camera, The Negative, and The Print, are still valuable today, yet a fair portion is a time-capsule. The Art of Photography is as relevant today as the day it was published and will be for a generation to come.
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