Last week someone asked me "how you take an interesting photograph?" This question raises a lot of questions-- the least of which is what is meant by "interesting"? I've been thinking about this and, while I'm far from coming up with answers, here are a few thoughts.

It seems to me that there are photographs that are interesting because the subject matter itself is unusual-- maybe some thing or some place we've never seen before. Then there are photographs that are interesting because the photographers have taken an image of some thing or some place that we've seen a million times before but we see it like it's brand new. They take something rather ordinary and made it extraordinary.

For example, in the fall I was fascinated by a photograph I saw at the Art Gallery of Windsor (c 1920 by a woman photographer, Canadian I think). It was of a white porcelain mug on a kitchen counter; ordinary in subject matter but extraordinary in its shape, lighting, colour, mood and composition. Of all the things in the gallery, that was what stayed with me from that visit.

Lately I've found myself being very interested in Henri Cartier Bresson's work and thinking about what makes it interesting. Perhaps he himself offers the best explanation: "To take photographs means to recognize-simultaneously and within a fraction of a second-both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis."

Food for thought. What do you think?

Check out some of Henri Cartier Bresson's work http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bresson.htm