I agree with what you have to say for the most part. Often when I photograph I am looking for some amazing light falling on my subjects. Usually this light I find or like to photograph in makes things more beautiful than they might otherwise be.

Perhaps this is the conundrum of photography, that it is so based off of light and almost seems to require beautiful light to be successful; thus making ugly AND successful photographs becomes incredibly difficult.

To me photographing is trying to make sense out of life, to better understand it and organize it. In a way this obsession with framing is trying to show the ideal life or what that would look like. When you work like this I think that it is very hard to avoid beauty. In fact I find that the harder my life is at a given moment, the more beautiful my pictures become. Basically I want to pretend that the hard part doesn’t exist and put my photos forward as the proof of how great life can be.

I love Burtynsky’s work but I do find that they are always beautiful. Even though most of his photos are showing very depressing scenes he has organized his compositions and found the most pleasing light so that the photos end up being beautiful. Maybe that’s how he comes to terms with these depressing situations, by making something good out of them.

There are, I think, some people taking pictures quite freely of “average” people, but you’re right that the subject in the frame just somehow becomes beautiful… Once you get to a certain place as an artist though, everything is beautiful after you stare at it for a little bit. I’m really good (sometimes too good, I feel. Is it a problem to enjoy everything? Am I bullshitting myself while strolling through art galleries?) at visual rationalization. Now the only things that I don’t enjoy visually are ones that are too easy.

hmm frustrating. I know I’ll almost instinctually edit out (or not take) an image with a double-chin. Maybe I should do a series all of images with double(andmore)chins.