“How did this make you feel?” A photograph is a singular event, it can either move us or it can be nothing more than a blurred moment.
“For me, photography is not a means by which to create beautiful art, but a unique way of encountering genuine reality” ―&苍产蝉辫;Daido Moriyama
How do we fall in love? Is it love at first sight or is it through careful examination of the person across from you? Photographs are a first glance, a moment taken to see what is there, synapses fire and past memories glide over the image taking us further into the frame. A photograph is not reason or logical, it pulls on our emotions, love, hate, surprise, outrage, envy, pride – it moves us to another micro step closer to being human. Photographs are the non-symmetric Rorschach test, how can you explain it in less than a thousand hashtags?
Today we can scroll through our Instagram feed and view snapshots of moments past, as we scroll faster and faster it becomes this cacophony of noise, until that one image that stops us and holds our brief attention. What is this? Where is this? That image is different for all of us, cats and dogs will always bring forth that smile, it’s a given; fur should be classified as a natural endorphin. Yet there is one image that we will be stopped in our tracks by, and it’s different for everyone. We look at the world through layered lenses that have been created by our experiences, each layer forged through trial and error, through ups and downs, all combined into our own personal kaleidoscopes’.
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” ―&苍产蝉辫;Elliott Erwitt
With the beginnings of the photograph from explorations of landscapes to portraiture, we are continuously running after that moment. Capturing a moment with a butterfly net, taking the beauty and pinning it to a board to forever view it, knowing that that moment has been extinguished and is a past that will never be again. We are alchemists that toy with immortality with each photograph, but we fail after each shutter click because we look down at our screen and see that moment gone. Our lives are made of moments that are never to be repeated, and we try to capture each one in the promise of immortality, our lives are forever burning on a screen like the eternal flame that can only be extinguished by the crashing of the online cloud.
The psychology of a photograph is like the practice of psychology, “how do you feel?” and “how did that make you feel?” We are all psychologists with cameras. We are offering open questions with no single answers; we offer just a glimpse that opens up your mind to the experience only you know.
We choose images that we hope can convey our message to a general audience, and we can do that with the iconic symbology available to us through keywords. However, the image that holds us prisoner is the one image that we cannot explain to anyone.
“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.” ― Joan Miró
Building a lightbox through your instinctive power:
Every living thing on our planet earth has a commonality, instinct. We can sense openness, fear, desire, hate, envy, pride, and love – some can sense even more because they are open to trusting their gut. Have you ever had the moment where you thought of something and the person facing you says it?, you automatically say, “Wow, I was just thinking that too!” that is a moment of clarity between two people. As designers, art buyers, photo editors, creators, we have to have that gut instinct when we select images; “is this good, is this right for the project?” how often have we second guessed ourselves and chosen the second to third image when the first one was the one we needed?
Selecting an image is about trust, it is about trust in you, trust in the keywords you use. Keywords are like haiku poems; sometimes the least obvious words are the correct ones.
Use not only the keywords that are relevant to your search, but also include a few that add a story to the image, write the story in words that come into your mind without any holds barred. From there your search will become about first thoughts and reactions, but most importantly the instinct that is the common thread through all our interactions.
Here are some examples of using haiku poems and the words of William Shakespeare to help form image keywords searches.
Haiku and Shakespeare
Winter seclusion –
Listening, that evening,
To the rain in the mountain.
Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶, June 15, 1763 – January 5, 1828
Keywords: winter, mountain and rain
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” ―&苍产蝉辫;,
Keywords: love, sea, eyes and mind
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” ―&苍产蝉辫;,
Keywords: love, sea, eyes and mind
