Looking at the Small Picture...

As a photographer, I’m always looking at the big picture - the vast landscape, the interesting building, the famous bridge, the sweeping panorama - but I’ve found more and more, looking at the “small picture” instead of the “big picture” gives me the most satisfying images and the images that, for me, hold more interest.

Everyone likes the beautiful pastoral scene with waving golden wheat and fluffy clouds, or the night view of a cityscape with all the building lit up and stark against the night sky, but it takes a little more observation to notice the small, the interesting “piece” of something; the texture and pattern on a rock, the diaphanous wings of an insect, the sand patterns on the beach formed by wind and wave. Even though I’ve only sold two closeup images, and those were sold as greeting cards, I find myself more and more drawn to the tiny, the hidden, the abstract and the generally unnoticed.

The beauty in the rusted patterns on the side of a dumpster can be as interesting as the images of a babbling brook. The texture of an old wood plank with its stark grain and old knots are images that make me want to pause and look closer. Old, weather-worn paint, abstractions of wood grain, crystal facets in the sun, a spider web covered with dew, the life line in the palm of a hand - life is in the details.

I’ve noticed some artists and photographers are drawn to the same things and invariably, those images in their portfolios that concentrate on the abstract piece of a larger thing have fewer views than their more “traditional” work. I always try and leave a comment if I’m drawn to the work. Often, mine is the only comment on this lonely “outcast” image.

I would encourage anyone who reads this blog to pay attention to the smaller things when looking through other people’s portfolios. Celebrity portraits, animals and sweeping seascapes don’t have to be the only popular items here. Let’s also support the “less seen but also beautiful” art of the tiny and hidden by commenting on and voting for those small things we find beautiful.