If you read about photography and critical thinking in photography, much of that writing is about the importance of ideas and thematic concepts in art. It doesn’t matter if it essay’s from Brook Jensen’s Lenswork magazine over other year, Critical Thinking in Photography, Art in America, Allard’s The Visual Storyteller or some other book. The idea behind the image is what makes the image interesting. In a simple form, it is the why you take the photograph verse the how you take a photograph.

As we create and build more interesting photographs, we convey and communicate more exciting ideas. When photos fail, it is often because they lack clarity of the purpose or reason behind the photograph. Now, this isn’t to say that you always have to understand or have a reason to take a picture, but as you try to understand why some images work better than others, it might be in the concept. Yet, a great thought without great execution also makes for visual disinterest. If all you have is a great idea, it becomes hard for your audience, even an audience of one, to relate the sub-par work back to the idea. They need to work hand in hand. This week’s podcast is all about how ideas need to be at the focus of our curiosity and photography.

Gear used in podcast

All three Rode components as kit

Adobe Audition (part of create cloud subscription)