Have any non-photographers influenced your photography?

[don_e]

Often enough there are threads posted asking about influential photographers. I

got to thinking about non-photographers who affect me. Motion picture makers and

painters seemed a likely source. But having listed my faves, I realized that, no

matter how much I liked their work, it didn't mean they are influences. But,

mulling it over on a blizzardy 'lake effect' day, I did recognize some. The list

surprised me at first, but then began to make sense.

 

Motion Pictures: Jaques Tati, Andrei Tarkovsky. Painting: Fra Angelico,

Botticelli, Braque, Picasso.

 

Tati, setting up the frame and letting the action unfold. Tarkovsky's proabing

camerawork, much like a photographer looking for the shot. Botticelli and

Picasso for the dynamic line as a compositional element. Braque and Angelico for

their sense of color and light.

[alex_lofquist]

Probably nausea.

[michael_darnton1]

When I saw that headline, I wasn't thinking of famous artists--I immediately thought of a non-photographer friend of mine, Ronald Thomas, who told me that I shouldn't always shoot everything from about the same distance. That was one of the more concise and accurate criticisms I've had, and it influenced my work greatly, because that encouraged me to look for grooves I'd worn my self into.

[Matt Laur]

Thanks, Mom and Dad. That basement darkroom in the 1970's was pretty formative.

[brucecahn]

Everything you see influences your photography, if you really see it.

[steve_dittmar]

my wife works for an advertising agency and researches and scans photos every day. she is my best critic, and i wish i had her eye for detail.but sometimes i think she's too easy on my photos.

[don_e]

The responses are interesting -- I realize how few non-photographers I'm aquainted with. Even my wife is a photographer.

[m_barbu1]

The behavior of the people around me influences it.<div></div>

[lex_jenkins]

My mom. She bought me my first darkroom kit when I was 9. Make contact prints from my Brownie with it. "Lex! Get out of the bathroom!" "It's not a bathroom, mom, it's a darkroom!"

 

Ralph Stedman's ink artwork for Hunter S. Thompson's novels warped my little mind when I was a mere lad of 15.

 

I was also a big fan of Van Gogh and Toulouse-Latrec, which is why to this day I have no sense of proportion or color accuracy.

 

Literature probably did more than anything else to influence the way I see the world. Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," required school reading, provided more vivid imagery than a dozen contemporary thrillers. In the good old days novelists wrote for readers and sparked the imagination. Nowadays they write novelizations of treatments for screenplays, pandering to Hollywood instead of fans of literature. And I'm not talking about high-brow stuff, just ordinary good story telling for readers. Now you get Dan Brown writing screenplays with a little extra narrative thrown in.

 

(Har-RUMPH! Sez Lex snootily, sinking back into his easy chair with a snifter of warm brandy and a stocking cap upon his head.)

[milton-chris]

My work is mostly influenced by my non-photographer friends. I have always tried to verbally relate things I've seen, but never been able to get my message across. Now, photography allows me to do so much more easily.

[aplumpton]

All the time.

 

During three months each year (summer) I exhibit what I've done in the past 9

months before visitors and potential buyers. I love to hear their appreciation of what

they see, whethe positive or negative. It does not radically change my approach, but

their comments help in understanding the nature of public response and what

motivates that. Because I also showcase the works of painters and sculptors, I can

remain at times anonymous to the viewer, which allows a more natural appreciation.

[iron shore gallery]

My photographs are influenced by painters... Kurt Schwitters, Mark Toby, and the abstract expressionists, especially, Hans Hoffman, and Richard Diebenkorn... or so I imagine.

[felixg]

I'm probably most influenced by writers, poets, sculptors, musicians, dance.

 

But all arts are in the mix.

 

So are just "other people".

[fullmetalphotograper]

Director Akira Kurosawa, director Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop, Japanese artist

Yoshi,taka Amano, director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri and Modern and classical japanese art.

[silverdae]

I once did a mini photography project based on the Fibonacci sequence, so I guess I could choose him. Pretty interesting, though I can't say I came up with any award winning pictures. It made me look at life around me in a different way, and taught me how to "shift gears" with a goal in mind when I had the camera out for that purpose.

[Brian]

I can't help feeling that listing influences is just an excuse for a bit of name-dropping. We are influenced by everything we have experienced, and it's kind of pretentious to list a couple of well known figures in the arts, when in all probability your Mom and Dad had more influence on you. But still, indulge if you like.

[don_e]

I am so shamed by your homespun, honest, humbleness, but...I must namedrop. I can't help myself.

 

I'm flawed.