How to make compelling travel images with Ami Vitale – Critique review Part 4

This is the 4^th and final part of the series that shares the insight, advice and feedback that I got from Ami Vitale, during my recent Compelling Image portfolio review. What started out with the intention of being 4 short posts, ended up as 4 essays – sorry about that. Got kind of inspired and passionate about what I learned!

If you haven’t read the others, please do check out: Slowing down with Ami Vitale, Being there with Ami Vitale and The science and art of photography with Ami Vitale. I have tried to keep the feedback pertinent to anyone interested in photography, rather than a personal soapbox for my meager talents!

This last post is the advice I received about how to make my images – predominately travel reportage – more compelling, by recognizing my strengths and using them to differentiate my work. I am going to jump right in and share two final images that Ami and I discussed during the review and use them to illustrate the advice she gave me.

The first is the Man in the Barbershop. If you have read the 3 previous posts then this image was one of the rare occasions where I had managed to combine these 3 concepts – albeit unknowingly! But the result is pleasing. Of all the images, this was the one that Ami got really excited about, because she immediately saw a story being told. As a picture it was well composed, well lit, but the subject matter is unusual and also lighthearted so grabs your attention. It is a compelling image because it has highlighted the unusual in the usual. It has presented a different side to Cairo than seen by most tourists. It has also played to my strengths (Ami’s perspective, not mine!) of looking for light and strong composition, getting in close, forming a relationship with the subject all of which allows a more personal dimension to be shown in the final image.

It is not unique a situation – you will find other barber shops in other parts of the world where a similar story can be told. But it works because it has the marriage of the science and art of photography. It works because there is a mixture of observation and communication and lastly it  is an image that stands alone, but also could be part of a wider story and encourages you to find out about more of that story.

In fact we talked about this image quite a lot in the review, and ended up agreeing that I should look at the whole subject of how traditional barber shops play a role in Egyptian community life as a photo essay project. Oddly for a culture so masculine and traditional, there is an interesting bridge to the more “metro-sexual” western world where this sort of male grooming is seen as a modern phenomenon, yet here we have proof that it is part of a traditional culture.

This success in creating this compelling image is in contrast to the second image – Shepherd in Sakara. This was – is – one of my favorite images because it represents Egyptian daily life to me and the combination of light, subject matter and composition give it an almost biblical quality. I had deliberately shot these shepherds heading home at the end of the day, knowing that the sun would be low, the dust cloud prominent and by shooting the subjects going away from me, I though this re-enforced the story of the end of the day.

Ami’s perspective was different, and surprised me a little. Whilst she acknowledged the great light, and understood the composition, she felt the image could have been better. As a travel image it was not iconic because it was not complete – it didn’t provide the viewer with a complete story. You are left with questions, rather than insight. Travel photography she reminded me is not about the location, but in seeing whichever location you are in with fresh eyes. It is about being intimate with the culture, the people and the environment. It is about seeing beyond the surface to the real story underneath. Travel photography is as much about humanity as it is about location.

Of course she was viewing this image with objective and fresh eyes, and not perhaps the blind conviction and attachment that I had formed around it. As she talked my perception of the “quality” of the image began to unravel! Perhaps  if I had included less of the green bush, or waited for the concrete slab in the bottom centre to be out of shot, then this would have made that particular composition more compelling. But Ami suggested also that to really tell this story, to really capture the location, the humanity and the environment,  that perhaps I should be taking an entirely different image.

If the story was about the unchanged tradition of the shepherd in Egypt, or the return home after a long day out with the sheep, or the “biblical” aspect of daily life, then this image only told part of the story. Perhaps, she offered, a shot of them coming towards me might suggest more of a welcome home after a long day or even to take a shot in the morning when they are going out. Whilst the image is good, there is an opportunity to tell a more complete story and create a more compelling image. Ami’s ability to immerse herself in her subject’s environment, to find the unusual in the usual, to tell the story with compassion and insight is what marks her out as one of the truly great modern photographers. Her suggestion then to return to the same place, perhaps with a translator, and getting introduced to the shepherds, spending a day with them, has to be taken seriously. As soon as she said it my mind raced with ideas and concepts, of opportunities and potential stories. So simple an idea, but potentially so profound and impact.

What this review process has done for me is open my eyes to how I approach photography and what I look for. Ami has helped me see past the perceived barriers of technique or experience; she has motivated me to get out there, experiment, have fun and to relax. Bu she has also really inspired me to think about what the story is I want to tell and to go and create photo essays that really tell those stories.

Everyone that I have talked to about Ami has the same opinion. She is the real deal. A compassionate big-hearted individual, with a capacity to relate to people and their lives. As a photojournalist and now multimedia journalist she is the master of her craft. The very high regard that photo editors, fellow professional humanitarian,freelance photographers, as well as her clients and students, hold her in is a reflection of who she is and how she goes about creating compelling and memorable images. Without trying to be overly sycophantic, It has been a true and rare privilege to have such dedicated feedback from someone whom I hold in very high regard and who has truly inspired me.

If you want to undergo a similar experience to me, then Ami still has some vacancies for personal one on one reviews available through The Compelling Image Website. I suspect though that the vacancies won’t be there for long!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 3:52 pm. It is filed under Travel, Workshops and tagged with Ami Vitale, technique, The Compelling Image, Workshops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.