Photography,  photos & notes

Standpoint and Creative Point Of View

Last Updated on 28/11/2020

The definition for the point of view is simple to be described, but it becomes more complicated when you have to apply it. The point of view is a standpoint and could include many things.

It’s a specified or stated manner of consideration or appraisal; it’s an opinion, judgment, attitude; and it’s the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.

In photography, the POV (point of view) is one of the first critical questions that the photographer should answer because it establishes the relationship between the subject of the photograph with the viewer. As the Russian photographer Alexey Brodovitch had written “The picture represents the feelings and the point of view of the intelligence behind the camera” (Creative Camera February 1972, p.472).

Photography has a decision-making process. In every step of this procedure you are obliged to make a choice. Choosing the place you will stand or set your camera is a crucial decision for start; it delimits the canvas of the photograph and defines the beginning of our visual narration. It’s the point that we choose to see and understand things and the place, where we will discover (or not discover) a unique and creative perspective.

The most common and expected is to stand in front of our scene and capture the moment in the level of our eyes. This happens naturally since it is the way we see the world. The next usual movement thing is to knee. And, then we turn the camera vertically to catch the scene in all its height. But, if we follow these steps many times, soon we will start experimenting with other POVs.

Instead of capturing scenes from eye level, we could put the camera on the top of something and look down. Or, set the camera on the ground and lookup. Or, we can choose bizarre points like holes, gaps, doors, windows, reflected surfaces to uncover an unnatural perspective. One of my favorite photographers and talented street photographer, Vivian Maier, had captured stunning and so creative self-portraits by photographing mirrors and reflecting surfaces in the street.

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