B (142)

march 2015 Better PhotograPhy

57

“There

should come

a point when

all the noise

surrounding

your work

should be

dampened

by you.”

Editorial

Go Away Closer

Every once in a while, it is a good thing to go away someplace and sit by yourself

and your thoughts. Similarly, in photography, too, it is a good idea to take your work

somewhere far away from the babble of critics, however well meaning, and also the

mindless maze that is social media. There should come a point when you quit with all

the critiquing and reviewing and feeding back. All of this is healthy, good, and even

wise, but what of your voice? What have you taken from all that has been said about your

work? No two people will tell you the same thing—everyone will have different ideas—and in trying to piece

them all together, you might just end up with a bit of a very haphazard patchwork.

It is important to try and seek out good advice, and it just as important to keep only the very essence of it in

our minds. Take your work back to yourself and see it for what it truly is, what does it make you feel, where do

you see the holes, what are the blind spots, where do the truly brilliant moments hide... And I’m not speaking

only about series when I say this, it could be single images that suddenly seem to come together, or even

disjointed fragments that do very well on their own, and even better when viewed for what they are.

The art of coming closer and looking inside has been the topic of many conversations, but what about the

art of going away?

Untitled

by Nirvair Singh

Amit Mehra speaks about

being discerning about

sharing one’s images on

social media

Turn to page 70

Prashanth Vishwanathan

on his diverse images of

India’s landscapes and

peoplescapes—

‘Dynamic Storytelling’

Turn to page 64

Cover photograph by

Prashanth Vishwanathan

Ambarin Afsar

[email protected] / Instagram: @batsaboutcats

My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.

DiAne ArbUs

Diane Arbus was an American photographer who believed a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh”, but that its

scrutiny revealed the truth—the difference between what people wanted others to see, and what they really did see: the flaws.

Nirvair Singh