Within the Frame
Today, I am going to write not only about the photographs, but also about the ways to photography. David duChemin is a man representing one particular photographic way which he introduces in his workshops and his books. I plan to write about his first book, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision, which has already come out in Czech under the name ”V hledáčku fotografa: Jak na fotografie s příběhem”. However, I am going to write about the English version, because I got it from the author himself during the Creative Live workshop. I have already written something about my luck in here.
As I tried to imply at the beginning of this article, this book shows us the way to making pictures with a story The goal of the book is to instigate the reader to ask why and what he is shooting, not to ask what he is shooting with.
Naturally, you may find some information about the technical aspects of lenses, but just regarding to the use they have for storytelling. David is an amazing teacher, experienced storyteller and his book inspires the readers to pick up the camera and capture the stories which take place around us. If I had not read it mostly in public transport I would certainly put it down on some occasions and go shooting.
Sometimes this book can give you the feeling that there is nothing more to tell about this topic, but I have already read David’s second book VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography, and I know, that he has much more to say.
David’s motto “Gear is good, Vision is better” carries on a subconscious level through the whole book. David isn’t trying to describe how to use the equipment, or how the compositional procedures work, he is trying to guide us to use these means to express our ideas in the pictures. In other words, he explains how to use the gear and the commonly known principles to create uncommon photographs which communicate with the spectators.
The whole book is full of David’s photos, which are used to add to our enjoyment and to complete the message of this book. Also, they show that he traveled a significant part of the world and that he is able to create captivating photographs anywhere he goes. Many of pictures show people from around the world and no matter their situation, on every of them is shown David’s respect for humanity. This is also apparent in the huge effort he put into his photographs which he took for various humanitarian organizations.
David wrote this book as his debut in 2009. A year later he continues with VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography and now you can preorder Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Better Images. This book will be published in September this year. Beside those he also wrote some ebooks for Craft&Vision and a book about Adobe Lightroom Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
