well, really, any tool available, but here we’ll be focusing on photography…

So… what does working with a camera do to an artist?  What specific actions- things- must one do when using a camera as an extension of, an adjunct to, tattoo art?  (Aside from the fact that one MUST make at least acceptable photos of tattoos if the tattoo artist is going to publish or advertise their work.)  Perhaps a better question is: what could one potentially learn as a painter, sculptor,  tattooist… in fact, anyone producing art, by using a camera? 

The question may be answered in a number of ways, but here are a few for your mastication… 

Using a camera forces the photographer to do certain things.  Not the least of which is LOOK.  Part of the beauty of the process of photography is the need to compose in the camera.  Now, you may NOT compose in the camera, but then you run the risk of loosing the image, part of the image, or most importantly… detail.  All photo capturing processes have a limited information capacity including processes which rely on chemical/film/metal and/or digital production…  Resolution of lenses and lens distortion play a part in composition.  Available darkness plays a part…. (yes, yes, I know, most photographers refer to this as “available light,” but when you turn it on it’s head you might see something different, ya?)   Composition is about what one leaves OUT of the image as much as what one puts into the image. 

Another factor is shutter speed.  The time from the press of the button to the moment when the curtain actually moves and the image is captured.  There is ALWAYS a lag, even in the most expensive and well engineered cameras.  One must learn to anticipate the shot as well as how to frame it.  (What has that got to do with other media including tattooing?  Well, yet again, it trains the artist to LOOK.)  When the mind/eye/heart are synced a more interesting set of image options open up.  One starts to see the world in stills and…perhaps,  in moving frames, captured and framed art, continually evolving and presenting itself from moment to moment. 

A good friend once asked me what the most important tool for a photographer was/is… Of course the answer was off my radar… She said: “The WALL.”  Huh?  Yup, the wall is your best friend as a photographer, painter, graphic designer, tattoo artist… in fact ANY artist benefits from putting her/his work up on the wall and LEAVING it there.  Study it.  Walk away.  Come back and study it some more.  Ignore it.  Walk past and glance at it.  Leave it up on the wall for a good amount of time…  weeks or months.  Have friends and family critique the work.  (Doesn’t matter if they don’t know or understand art.  You’ll know if their critiques mean anything and you’re inviting them to be a part of your life, your process.)  Have other artists look at your work.  Have several artist friends and/or acquaintances over to view the work… more than once.  LISTEN to the artists.  You don’t have to do what they suggest, but it might be worth trying at some point on some other image… or the one they’re critiquing…  Conversely, spend time with artists who invite you to critique their work…  There’s a ton o’ info there!

Perspective is probably an artifact of the use of lenses…Italian perspective is simply an understanding of optics.  No doubt the result of using the Camera Obscura and later… lenses…  Lenses were a HUGE factor in how the west and the world literally changed viewing and creation of art.  Lenses distort.  A friend proudly displayed a painting of a race car in action and proclaimed the artist never painted from photographs… Perhaps, but the artist had several artifacts from photography in the painting including compressed depth of field and limited plane of focus including an out of focus thumbprint from a specific type of lens.  Thus suggesting; images from cameras have played no small part in his understanding of what a picture SHOULD look like… 

Cropping… my favorite… While I do everything possible to crop in the camera, there are often better images within the image I’ve captured on film.  These refined images may be perceived through the use of two of my favorite tools; 2 pieces of black art board cut into wide “L” shapes such that they may be placed over an image and used to isolate the most pleasing composition possible.  (This is also a great tool to use when composing/designing a tattoo…  There are times when a tattoo looks better using part of the image instead of the whole enchilada…)   Cropping your photographs translates back into how you shoot/compose images in the camera and… how you see and render tattoo art. 

These are but a few points on the use of cameras/photography to improve any art form.  The most important bit here is the focus… not necessarily through the camera/lens, but the focus on producing art.  The discipline aimed at the outcome.  When one lives the art, sleeps it, breathes it, views it in everyday interactions one must change the form of the art produced…   Necessarily

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