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By either angels, demons, or both, I have been driven to succeed at this work. My training has been fashioned by my own logic.
I stumbled around for years trying to create art from what I thought were interesting photographs. It almost angers me when I think where I might be today in my work had there been an artist forum at my finger tips years ago, if there had been someone who could have hammered into my head a few simple truths.
It never occured to me to try and copy the old masters or even photos from magazines. I think it was mostly ego, but I wanted to point at my work and say that it was mine and mine alone.
After so many years it just came to me like a brick against the side of my head. If I was going to create art from a photograph (and this seemed completely legitimate to me) I was going to have to create an artful photograph.
I then set out to photograph everyone that came into my view. I would find interesting faces and coax them into a photo session. For their trouble I would give them a nice (even if not great, usually nicer than they had ever had) 8x10 photo portrait.
I have taken thousands of bad photographs, and I would not like to calculate my expenses.
What then came to me, also like a brick to the side of the head, was that it is all about composition. All is secondary to the composition. Whether I mix cad red medium or cad red light is just a manageable detail.
I know my path through this work has been different, and I don't suggest that this way is better than others suggested. But my point is this: if composition is "King", and if the camera is the greatest compositional teaching tool I have ever found, and it is, and if every photograph is an instant study in composition (if you will view it as such), then why not take some time off and take a few hundred rolls. And by the way I have never taken a photography class but I would never discourage someone from doing so.
Maybe my journey has put the classic approach on its head, I don't know. I hope someday to study with a great teacher. I hope someday to paint more from life. I do believe that my efforts to date have prepared me to begin.
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Mike McCarty
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