Author Topic: Mary Ellen Mark on her approach to taking a few of her well-known pics  (Read 592 times)

hookstrapped

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    • Peter Brian Schafer PHOTOGRAPHY
(sort of an antidote to that street photography post)

http://www.aperture.org/blog/mary-ellen-mark-portrait-moment/

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She's one of my all-time favourite photographers (from any genre).

This article reminds me of a quote by Gary Player (the South African golfer who, with Nicklaus, Palmer and Trevino, dominated the golfing world in the sixties and seventies).  Apparently, after hitting an incredible shot, someone said he'd been really lucky.  Player's retort was that "I find that the more I practice, the luckier I get".

To be really good at something, my belief is that you need to become so practiced, so familiar with how to deal with situations as they arise, that your response becomes instantaneous and automatic; second nature.  With street photography and sports / war photojournalism, it probably has to be that way more than any field of photography.
"An ounce of perception. A pound of obscure".