Thank you to Vaughan Brookfield, one of the calmest un-shooty photographers I know, for the image above.

Guns and Lenses

10 January, 2024

OMG can we please invent a new word for ‘shooting’ this year ?

‘Lens-based-image-making’ is ridiculously long winded.

‘Photographing’ means stills only.

‘Filming’ means motion only.

FFS.

I looked online for alternatives to the word shoot.

These were some of them:

  • Execute
  • Fire
  • Launch
  • Blast
  • Explode
  • Murder
  • Bombard
  • Hit
  • Hurl

None of them the focused, calm, observational, engaging, fun, warm, funny, wry, meditative, peaceful, connected qualities that so many photographers I know demonstrate.

Many photographers and film makers I speak to are looking for new ways to talk about what they do.

Tito Ferradan (who wrote this Petapixel article about the relationship between cameras and guns) agrees;

‘Simply updating our vocabulary creates an impact on our surroundings. Instead of “run-and-gun,” we can say “docu-style.” Let’s say “capture” instead of “shoot, or “anamorphic” instead of “scope”.’

I’m not convinced that ‘capture’ is enough though. (I have visions of small animals in cages but that’s just me.)

Here’s an idea.

Can you talk about the feeling you capture? Your ‘why’ and the energy your work evokes?

Such as:

I capture calm energy (like Adam Blasberg)
I make the ordinary look extraordinary (like Billy Plummer)
I capture a feeling of breaking free (like Liezl Zwarts)
I create poetry with my lens (like Dick Sweeney)
I believe in showing the power of the individual (like Christian Tisdale)
I build worlds (like Robert Earp)
I create mystery and intrigue (like Francesco Bittichesu)

All of these photographers are making motion and stills and all of them have found a way to articulate what they do in a way that speaks volumes about the end result, and doesn’t limit them to any particular media or form of creativity.

What emotion does your work evoke ?

If you need help with this, and you’d like to be considered for the same program that all the photographers above have done, you can book a discovery call with me for when I’m back to work on 20th January here.