photo from http://3191ayearofmornings.com/Sometimes when I teach my photography classes, students ask me how to take photographs that will make people say "wow" when they look at them. I'm never quite sure how to answer that question. For one thing, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and something that I think is beautiful is not necessarily something everyone else will think is beautiful. Still, there are photographs out there that grab the attention of a lot of people- often photographs taken in exotic places. The exotic is compelling to a wide audience. However, I sometimes scoff at this sort of "National Geographic" standard of photography. You'd really have to try to take a lousy photograph of say, the Eqyptian pyramids or of a safari in Africa. Where is the challenge in that? I don't want to denigrate the work of National Geographic photographers or the photographs of people lucky enough to have the budget to visit Paris and Africa on their summer vacation- those photographers have plenty of skill and talent (and National Geographic photographers tend to use top of the line cameras and lenses, which can't hurt).
I believe it is a far more difficult and worthy task as a photographer to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary through the camera and the lens. If there is any 'trick' to getting taking photos that rise a cut above all the rest, it's that. Anyone can take a picture, but not anyone can take a good picture.
I heard about this website sometime last year. It is a collaboration between two women, one living in Portland, Maine, the other living in Portland, Oregon. This is how the site is described:
3191, A Year of Mornings began on January 1, 2007 as an almost daily photo conversation, in blog form, between two friends that live 3191 miles apart. It lasted the entire calendar year ending on December 31, 2007.I think it is one of the best exercises in rendering the ordinary into something extraordinary that I've seen in a long time. As mentioned above, the Year of Mornings photos are no longer online because they are being made into a book. The photos on their website currently are from their current project, A Year of Evenings. The evening photos have the same feel as the morning photos, so you can get an idea of the type of photos both ladies shoot.
The project is now being transformed into a book which will be out in the Fall, published by Princeton Architectural Press. In preparation for the book, A Year of Mornings is no longer available for online viewing.
Both women photograph simple scenes from their everyday lives, and they can make something like a piece of toast look lovely, by the way the shot is framed, by the light in the photo, by the sometimes unusual points of view captured in their photos. Something else I found fascinating about their project is how similar in theme and composition the photos often are, despite the distance between the women. It is almost like they have a creative mind meld.
I was excited to hear that a book is being made of their work. If it is in my budget, I will certainly purchase it. Having a years' worth of these gentle, cozy and beautiful photos gathered together in a finely printed and bound book would be a treat. Perusing the book will make you feel like a lazy Sunday morning; a comfortable morning at home.
