LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience. Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life. Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

Location:

United States

Genres:

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Description:

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience. Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life. Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

Language:

English

Website:

http://www.lenswork.com/

Email:

editor@lenswork.com

Episodes

HT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs

4/18/2024

HT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs All media include an element of narcissism. With every photograph we make, we are essentially competing for attention. Each photograph screams, "Look at me!" This intense competition for eyeballs leads to a secondary phenomenon I think of as "the advertising promise." "Come look at me and you will be rewarded with this goody." The competition for eyeballs is so fierce that we now are overwhelmed with advertising promises way out of proportion to actual content.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought

4/17/2024

HT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought I've talked before about the solutions to problems that pop up from seemingly nowhere. I've recently been reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. I found there a fascination quote that discusses this process. Glad to know I'm not alone in observing how creative ideas so often appear unexpectedly.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1869 - Artwork Left Behind

4/16/2024

HT1869 - Artwork Left Behind I remember years ago hearing of a photographer who would leave small prints wherever he happened to find himself. He would leave his artwork on a bus bench, a restaurant table, a seat in the library, literally anywhere the spirit so moved him. I was so fascinated with this idea that I followed this plan the last time I was in Japan.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary

4/15/2024

HT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary The ideal kit includes everything I might need. The opposite of how much gear can I take is how little gear can I get by with. Perhaps it's a function of my aging knees and back, but I find myself brainstorming about the least amount of gear I can take with me and still be productive. Obviously I need a camera and lens, a battery and a memory card, but what else is absolutely necessary in order for me to be successful with the kind of photography I do? All 1860+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43

LW1397 - Looking for Photographs

4/15/2024

LW1397 - Looking for Photographs When you want to make a photograph, what do you do? Probably you set out into the world somewhere and start looking for things you might photograph. You are on the hunt for potential. What if you were to point yourself to your Lightroom catalog rather than the world out there? I would propose that searching the world and searching in your exigent collection are pretty much the same thing. All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:12:54

HT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform

4/14/2024

HT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform Yesterday I was talking about feedback and the way the digital workflow makes getting feedback about our work so much easier. Not unexpectedly, there is a downside to such easy feedback; the pressure to conform. All previous episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com that looks at failures as a way to learn. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1866 - Learning Without Feedback

4/13/2024

HT1866 - Learning Without Feedback How well do you suppose you would learn tennis if you could never see where the ball went after you hit it? Learning is always a function of action, feedback, assessment. This is equally true for photography and this explains one aspect of the digital revolution that I think is highly overlooked, but has radically changed the nature of photography.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1865 - How to Save $1,600

4/12/2024

HT1865 - How to Save $1,600 Once again I found myself contemplating the super long 100-400mm Panasonic Leica lens for my m/43 camera. As a part of the research, I decided to investigate a cropped image from the Panasonic Leica 50-200mm I already own. Then the next step was to see what the results would look like if I used either pixel shift technology versus Super Resolution Enhancement in Lightroom. Fascinating results.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1864 - Viewing Lights

4/11/2024

HT1864 - Viewing Lights The light we use to view a print or book is so critical in determining how that photograph appears. Unfortunately, we have no control over the light people use to view our work. A story from Paul Strand's biographer demonstrates how frustrating this issue can be for us photographers.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1862 - Reflected vs Transmitted

4/9/2024

HT1862 - Reflected vs Transmitted I've come to believe that the most fundamental and important decision we make when producing our image-based artwork is whether we want our work seen via reflected or transmitted light. Every subsequent processing decision is based on this first choice.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1861 - What Sets Photography Apart

4/8/2024

HT1861 - What Sets Photography Apart Each of the art media have characteristics that are its greatest strength, that set it apart from other media. A novel gives the writer unlimited control over time; music has the ability to tap directly into our nonverbal emotions; painting provides a medium in which the artist can include or exclude elements based solely on their imagination. What sets photography apart? Seems to me that one of its primary strengths is its ability to show detail even finer than human vision and to carry that detail to future generations. All 1860+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43

LW1396 - Commitment and Viewer Fatigue

4/8/2024

LW1396 - Commitment and Viewer Fatigue I love photography books, but I must admit that I struggle with big, thick books. I once wanted to read Tolstoy's War and Peace, but struggled for years to make the necessary commitment to its 1200 pages. I feel the same way about 3-400 page photography books. Like big books, big museums also present a challenge. The only way I know how to negotiate my time in a big museum is to concentrate my attention on a manageable number of pieces of artwork. Similarly, viewer fatigue is a real consideration as we produce our artwork.. All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:12:54

HT1860 - The Problem of Movement

4/7/2024

HT1860 - The Problem of Movement Gestalt psychology tries to explain why we are drawn to certain themes of attention. For example, movement attracts our eye much more than a static scene. Put in photography, all we have are static scenes, even if they capture blurry movement. This defines one of photography's greatest challenges. All previous episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com that looks at failures as a way to learn. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1859 - What Will I Do with This Day?

4/6/2024

HT1859 - What Will I Do with This Day? Each morning as I slowly awaken from my night's sleep, I think about the coming day and what I need to do. Every once in a while, I find my calendar is clean, I can spend the whole day doing photography without any guilt about obligations I might be ignoring. What a wonderful day! But then follows the troublesome question: What will I do?

Duration:00:02:43

HT1858 - The Three Rules of Communication

4/5/2024

HT1858 - The Three Rules of Communication An old maxim tells us the theory of communication broken down into three steps of advice. Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you just told them. That pattern seems to work pretty well in project-oriented photography, too.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted

4/3/2024

HT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted There is that old bumper sticker wisdom that advises us to be careful what we wish for: we might just get it! For most of my photographic life I wanted faster, smoother, sharper, better. Now that I have all of that in today's amazing photographic tools, I suppose there are no excuses left for why our artwork fails other than to acknowledge our personal and internal limitations. Damn it was sure handy blaming inadequate tools!

Duration:00:02:43

HT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do

4/2/2024

HT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do Do you have a photographic fantasy of something you would love to do? I suspect we all have such thoughts. Then reality sets in and we realize that those fondest desires may simply not be practical. Do we give up based on the fact that we can't achieve our fantasies? Or, do we adapt ourselves to what we can do? What other option is there? Don't let "If only..." become an excuse.

Duration:00:02:43

HT1854 - The Terrible, Awful, Horrible Non-Problem of Diffraction

4/1/2024

HT1854 - The Terrible, Awful, Horrible Non-Problem of Diffraction With some regularity, we are advised by the wise leaders in photography to avoid using the smallest apertures because of the introduction of that focus softening known as diffraction. My advice is to ignore their advice. Not that diffraction doesn't exist; it does. It's just not as serious an issue as the pundits insist that it is. All 1850+ episodes of Here's a Thought . . . are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online, our extensive resource library of our 30-year publishing history. Learn more about LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43

LW1395 - The Pace of Creativity

4/1/2024

LW1395 - The Pace of Creativity I've noticed that I've developed a really bad habit in my photography. Sometimes, with some locations, I get so excited about all that I am seeing that I work too fast, too frenetically, too voluminously. I end up firing away rather than taking a moment to feel what is before me. Curiously enough, I've learned the solution to this problem is the tripod. All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:12:54

HT1853 - The Disappearing Megapixels

3/31/2024

HT1853 - The Disappearing Megapixels Congratulations on your new 42 megapixel (or 60 megapixel) camera. You can now make giant prints. Good for you. But what happens to those megapixels if you don't make giant prints? What happens if you make a 13x19", or even a 17x22" print? All those captured and processed pixels get tossed out as superfluous data that is simply not needed. All previous episodes of our weekly podcast are available to members of LensWork Online. 30-day Trial Memberships are only $10. Instant access, terabytes of content, inspiration and ideas that expand daily with new content. Sign up for instant access! You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com that looks at failures as a way to learn. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Duration:00:02:43