a framework for developing your photographer’s eye

When I started college nearly thirty years ago, I went thinking I could write well. Thanks to one amazing professor, I left college knowing I could. Although I took a number of English courses and had writing requirements in nearly every course, he was the one that kicked the stool out from under me, then gave me the tools to learn how to pull myself back up. The funny thing is, it all hinged on one simple essay written nearly thirty years earlier…

“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell was a religious experience for my writing. Even though I have strayed over the years, forgetting the explicit rules, there was always a voice in the back of my mind gently guiding my writing, much the way an unchurched Christian relies on the Golden Rule and some abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments. I never have forgotten the dramatic impact Orwell’s six rules had on me that Spring of ‘83; it was only when I was reacquainted with their source that I was able to take my writing back to church, to start reexamining what I have written, to commit to writing better. For me, it’s the difference between writing well accidentally, or on purpose. As it was then, it is now simply a matter of getting back to basics.

How does this relate to photography?

That is up to you. Let me give you Orwell’s six rules about writing and see how you can apply them to making yourself a better photographer.

From Politics and the English Language, written in 1946:
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

If you’re so inclined, here’s the complete essay.

As a starter, here’s my interpretation/application:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
avoid visual cliches

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
avoid competing subjects

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
avoid clutter

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
shoot the verb

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
get it right in-camera

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
a great image will be a great image, regardless of the rules broken…