Bruce Barnbaum:摄影创新中的障碍

Bruce Barnbaum

Bruce Barnbaum 1943. He entered photography as a hobbyist in the 1960s. After nearly 50 years, it is still his hobby; it has also been his life’s work since 1970.

His photography expands upon the dynamics he finds in both nature and the works of man, relating forces to the sweeping forms that dominate his vivid imagery. Visually he emphasizes the best of humanity and nature, sometimes with bold realism, often with degrees of abstraction to heighten the mystery. He understands light to an extent rarely found, and combines this understanding with a mastery of composition, applying them to an extraordinarily wide range of subject matter. His photographs often contain ambiguities concerning either the size of the scene photographed and/or its orientation, forcing the viewer to pause and think, and to become part of the creative process.

Bruce has been an active environmental advocate for more than five decades, as a photographer he has seen the changes in our land and our landscape—almost all of them for the worse—that have taken place in the 50 years he has actively been photographing our planet.

Bruce Barnbaum 1943年出生。60年代时开始以爱好者身份接触摄影将近50年。1970年开始变成终身工作。

他的摄影扩展了他在自然和人类作品中发现的动态，将力量与主导他生动形象的广泛形式联系起来。在视觉上，他强调人性和自然的精华，有时带有大胆的现实主义，通常带有抽象程度以增强神秘感。他对光的理解很少见，并将这种理解与对构图的掌握相结合，将它们应用于极其广泛的主题。他的照片经常包含关于拍摄场景的大小和/或其方向的模糊性，迫使观众停下来思考，并成为创作过程的一部分。

五十多年来，Bruce一直是一位积极的环保倡导者，作为一名摄影师，他见证了我们的土地和景观的变化——几乎所有这些变化都变得更糟——在他拍摄了50年的行星上。

Bruce Barnbaum: 关于创新障碍

创新的障碍除了无能为力，创新有三个最基本的障碍。

第一个也是最大的障碍就是大多数人对不同寻常，奇怪，狂野，不同，或新的东西坚决反对。我听学习摄影的学生动情地说他们对创新的愿望，但是他们拒绝做任何破坏他们根深蒂固的思维模式和一般摄影方法的事情。

第二个创新障碍就是没有足够的时间去思考新的方法，或实施他们的想法。摄影，对每个人来说都是可以做到的，被广泛地被认为是一种非常容易的艺术形式。在某种意义上，制作像样的幻灯片，底片，数码文件，都是很容易的。把他们送去试验室冲印，或者是用JPEG在电脑上展示给朋友亲戚看都是很容易的。有点困难的就是你自己印制出具有高质量的照片。以个人的见解,独特的视觉，有含义的表达来制作照片不是一件容易的事情。如果你想通过摄影创作艺术，你需要有充足的时间来思考大量成功摄影作品的特点。为了创作明显不不同的图片，要尽可能的去改变一点和多点可以改变的东西。兼职摄影来说几乎是不可能的。许多希望创新的人并不缺乏能力；他们缺乏时间。但是如果他们有时间他们会放在需要的努力上吗？当在其他方面不需要太努力时，思想可以专注于摄影，这些想法可以被在有时间摄影时被实现。这对于业余摄影，提高了摄影创造的潜力。我怀疑不经常摄影的人的摄影创造力。摄影看起来是很容易的艺术形式但是其实是非常困难的。

最后的一个障碍来自外部，而不是内部。这是公众和评论家，对在进入新方向的创新艺术家前面的坚决反对。Jarry Uelsmann说他有些沉溺于超现实复合印刷图像。他期待自己这样做，拒绝其他的形式。Jay Dusard 出版1983《北美牛仔，肖像》之前从事了近20年的风光摄影。他被誉为牛仔摄影师，所以展示其他作品时遭遇到反对，甚至是风景摄影。我的第一本书《视觉交响乐》，呈现了我工作的四个不同领域，让我在展示其他的工作时，没有给抵制留下很多余地。我后续的《音诗》系列也呈现了我工作与音乐CD结合的不同领域，把我的范围扩展到另一种艺术形式上。然而我回想起我早期风景作品倾向抽象时，我的朋友和熟人表达了一种惊讶，甚至是一点点来自超越他们预期的变化引起的不满意。打破别人对自己的期望是非常困难的事情。

原文引用：

Obstacles to Creativity

Other than inability, there are three basic obstacles to creativity.

The first and greatest obstacle is the adamant opposition most people have toward trying anything unusual, strange, wild, different, or new. I hear students of photography talk emotionally about their desire to be creative and then refuse to do anything that breaks with their entrenched patterns of thought and general approach to photography.

The second obstacle to creativity is insufficient time to think about new approaches or to implement them once conceived. Since photography is available to virtually everyone, it's widely perceived to be an " easy " art form. In one sense, it is easy to make decent slides, negatives, and digital files; it's also easy to send them to the lab for processing or put JPEGS on the computer for friends and relatives. With a little more difficulty, you can make your own prints with excellent technical quality. But it's not easy to produce photographs with personal insight, unique vision, and meaningful expression. If you're attempting to make art via the medium of photography, you need adequate time to reflect on the many characteristics of successful photograph, and on the creative possibilities of changing one or more of the variables in order to produce significantly different image. It's nearly impossible to do this on a part-time basis. Many people who wish to be creative don't lack the ability; they lack the time. But then again, if they had the time, would they put in the required effort? Of course, thought can be devoted to photography while engaging in other endeavors ( if those other endeavors aren't too demanding ), and those thoughts can be pursued during the time available to photography. This increases the potential for photographic creativity on a part-time basis. Yet I have doubts about the creative possibilities for someone who picks up the camera periodically, or someone who enters the darkroom or gets in front of the screen, keyboard, and mouse infrequently and has no other time to think about the process. While photography may seem to be an easy art form, it's deceptively difficult.

The final impediment to creativity comes from without, not within. It's the staunch opposition that the public and the critics throw in front of creative artists when they take off in new directions. Jerry Uelsmann has noted that he's somewhat " boxed in " with his surrealistic, multiple-print images. He is expected to do that, and he finds resistance to presenting anything other than that. Jay Dusard photographed landscapes for nearly 20 years before producing his exceptional book, The North American Cowboy, A Portrait, in 1983. Since then, he's been perceived by many as a " cowboy photographer " and has encountered resistance to presenting other work, even landscapes. My first book, Visual Symphony, presented four different areas of my work. This multifaceted approach gave me more leeway to present other work without as much resistance. My subsequent books of the Tone Poems series also present several different areas of my work combined with music on CDs which expands my range into another art form. Yet I recall that when my early landscape work began leaning toward abstraction, many of my friends and acquaintances expressed surprise - and more than a little displeasure - with the change from the imagery that they had come to expect. It can be extremely difficult to break away from what others expect - and often demand - from you.

这本独特的新书由 Rocky Nook 发行，主要讲述如何成为一名更有创意的摄影师。

布鲁斯·巴恩鲍姆 (Bruce Barnbaum) 的《摄影的本质》借鉴了布鲁斯 (Bruce) 数十年制作个人作品的经验、他多年制作商业作品的经验以及他数十年的教学研讨会，让您深入了解如何产生一种创造性的心态，最终制作出真正好的照片。拿起相机拍摄不会让你成为摄影师，就像拿起铅笔写作不会让你成为作家一样。你必须同时钻研，这本书可以帮助你通过摄影来做到这一点。

当你说你“有一双好眼睛”时，你的意思是你能识别出一个美丽的场景（几乎任何人都能做到），还是你的意思是你能识别出非常好的照明、场景中良好的形式关系、特别有利的条件，还有很多其他不可估量的东西可以让照片变得特别吗？您是否认识到您的眼睛和相机面前的场景与您可以制作的图像之间的差异，使用场景作为您表达的起点？这本书解释了这些差异，并告诉你如何超越“捕捉场景”来表达你对场景的感受。

这本书包含八章，充满了深刻的见解，并配有 100 多张彩色和黑白照片，大部分由布鲁斯拍摄，但也由布鲁斯称为导师、合作导师、同事和学生的其他摄影师拍摄。这本书没有任何肤浅的东西。消化之后，你的摄影就没有什么肤浅的了

The Essence of Photography

Released by Rocky Nook, this new and unique book centers on how you can become more creative as a photographer.

Bruce Barnbaum's The Essence of Photography draws on Bruce’s decades of experience in producing his own personal work, his years of producing commercial work, and his decades of teaching workshops to give you insights into how to produce a creative mindset ending up in producing truly good photographs. Picking up a camera and shooting does not make you a photographer any more than picking up a pencil and writing makes you a writer. You have to work at both, and this book helps you do it with photography.

When you say you “have a good eye” do you mean that you can recognize a beautiful scene (which virtually anyone can do), or do you mean you recognize exceptionally good lighting, good relationships of forms within the scene, particularly advantageous conditions, and so many other imponderables that can make a photograph something special? Do you recognize the difference between the scene in front of your eye and camera, and the image you can produce, using the scene as a starting point for your expression? This book explains the differences, and tells you how to go beyond “capturing the scene” to making your statement about how you feel about the scene.

The book contains eight chapters filled with great insights, and illustrated with over 100 photographs in color and black and white, mostly by Bruce, but also by other photographers Bruce has known as mentors, co-instructors, colleagues, and students. There is nothing superficial about this book. After digesting it, there will be nothing superficial about your photography.

Broken Bow Arch, Willow Gulch 16x20

Aspens At Dusk,Conway Summit2 16x20

Fallen Sequoias 16x20

An dean Peak,+Peru 16x20

Skrova Grass In Snow 16x20

Hollows&Points Peach Cyn 16x20

The Wicker Chair 16x20

Beneath Santa Monica Pier 16x20

以上信息来自Bruce Barnbaum个人网站及书籍

可惜不是贴主摄影的。