Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image: An Imagination Workshop for Photographers

You may or may not like many of the photos included in this book. That is irrelevant. The authors are trying to engage the "artist" within you, to encourage you to view the world not in its stark realism, but in an emotional way. The authors ask that you look at each scene you wish to photograph, and determine what emotions it evokes. Then, decide what technique can be employed to capture and convey that emotion. Sometimes this results in an abstract photo where the underlying subject is hardly discernable. Other times, the subject is very identifiable, but chosen, positioned (interms of composition) to recall memories, feelings, senses. I wish that the authors had provided more technical details for many of the photos (which lenses, f-stops, etc.), perhaps as a footnote, even at the risk of detracting from the overall message of "art" rather than photography. This book is entirely about film photography, and translationn of some of the authors' techniques to the digital world is not always straight-forward. Certainly, any such translation would require Photoshop, and a rather sophisticated understanding of layers, masks, opacity, etc.

Some interesting ideas for abstract compositions along with a lot of the standard Patterson shtick. Although its film based, an experienced Photoshop user can readily adapt the suggested techniques to the digital world. Also, a web search will help if the exact digital work flow is not obvious. For example, Ellen Anon has a page on how to do Andre Gallant's montage process -- but you do need to be proficient in the use of layers.

What this book is at its heart, is a series of short essays on how to do art photography. It teaches you how to think outside the box in terms of how you compose a shot and what techniques you might use in setting exposure. Each essay or chapter include several photographic examples and you would be amazed at the photos the author makes using nothing but tin foil as a subject. This book teaches you that a photography can convey a scene or convey a mood or emotion and the techniques that you used to switch between them can be very different.

This was old but useful.

This book is certainly not the first book to purchase when beginning photography.It is a book that tends to open your mind, and to learn to see differently.It is not a digital technique oriented handbook, since this book still deals with slide, film and polaroid (written in 2001).It becomes interesting when you have worked out most of the traditional photographic techniques and search new inspiration.And for these reasons, I should recommend it for advanced photographers, not for beginners.

Over the years I have bought several books by Freeman Patterson which led me to take a week-long workshop given by him in 1996, at which Andre Gallant was also an instructor. All were quite good. This book is a disappointment and worth far less than the discounted price paid for it.

At first glance, this book might appear to offer photographers a step beyond straight picture-taking as a tool to invoke a response from viewers. Freeman Patterson has always been an important teacher who talks about the role of the photographer, rather than equipment, in creating photographic art. Unfortunately, this book doesn't deliver on its premise or promise.This book seems to have been made by joining together smaller pieces. There are two short books here under one cover, one called "Photo Impressionism" and the other "the Subjective Image". Then each of these books is made up of relatively unrelated chapters, like the first which discusses the creating of multiple images of the same subject on the same frame of film by making multiple exposures and the second which discusses creating images by sandwiching two or more pieces of film together. That the chapters are unrelated is made obvious by the fact that they are written by each author individually with no collaboration between the authors.What one learns are a couple of techniques. One involves randomness in the creation of pictures that makes a mockery of the description of photo impressionism as a "depiction...intended to achieve...a vividness or effectiveness...." Ansel Adams' teachings about the role of vision in photography have guided fine photography for many years. Perhaps that has been an error in the conventional wisdom, but most serious photographers would deny any error. Randomness is the antithesis of intention and vision.Other than that, the book is a collection of trite advice like the fact that exposure and film are important to good photography! A description of an author's trip to Morocco provides little guidance about photo-impressionism, and advice that a "long chin or nose will appear shorter if you lower your camera position" sounds very conventional. What is amazingly lacking in a book released in the 21st century is any reference to the manipulation of images digitally.However, the photographs in the book are beautiful, and one can see how the authors have tried to speak to our emotions. At the same time many of even the best images appear to be quite conventional in approach.Photography needs a good book on this subject that can tell serious camera wielders how to "achieve a vividness or effectiveness more by invoking subjective and sensory impressions than by re-creating an objective reality" (to quote the authors' paraphrase of the dictionary). How can one look at a subject and see the potential for its image to be adjusted in a way that will tell the viewer something that could not be said if a mere record was made? This book doesn't tell us that. In fact Patterson's earlier "Photography and the Art of Seeing" does a better job. Someone interested in seeing how one practitioner does this, along with the photographer's thoughts on individual pictures, would probably benefit more by reading Tony Sweet's "Fine Art Nature Photography: Advanced Techniques and the Creative Process"In summary, nice pictures and weak words.

I ordered this book, I received a different Photo Impressionism and subjective image, not the imagination workshop that I wanted. I kept the book that was sent as it is great too, but this is the book I ordered and did not receive??

Primarily a stimulus for analogue film camera users, but an excellent book. There are photo examples on almost every other page, and the inspiration and methodology is well explained. It is written in easy to understand language without the 'pseudo' self-justifying speak that is merely an ego-trip for the author. This book has none of that - just how it was seen; how the theme developed; how it was finalised. Consequently, an able digital photographer should be able to translate the techniques with ease.

I expected it to be a bit more advanced and innovative. Well, over 10 years (copy right 2001) appears to be a lot not only in technology but in methods and creativity as well. Anyway, still worth reading - can teach you a bit