On Shooting Dance, Part IV

Let's continue with my discussions and ruminations on my niche. There's a wall a dance photographer will hit and it looks like this: "What else should I do?"

First, you should not steal another photographer's material. Especially mine. It's astounds me, simply floors me how often I see a.) my photos elsewhere on the internet without proper attribution and b.) my material, my choreography in someone's frame.

Second, you should create your own material other photographers and dancers will want to steal.

I prefer the second. I prefer to produce something gritty, something muddy, something unpredictable. Something beautiful. The above photo illustrates this point as part of the Studio 60 Project where the actual space is as much a part of the composition as the dancer, all it's quirks and ugly spots included. The lighting is hard, the dancer is turned in, the background not clean and easy. A former teacher of mine would say the following, "Why would you want to make that line?"

Because: this is my dance and this how I do it. I do not revere dance the same way the general public does. I used to be like that, revere the goddess in her pointe shoes, revere her training or her body, her mastery of the grueling technique. But she is just like any other person. She just happens to dance.

Technical mastery is an orphan, pretty lines by pretty dancers for pretty pictures are orphans. The true beauty in dance lies within the dancer and how it manifests into a line, a shape, a photograph. Something you'll want to steal.