The Heart of the Photograph
By
David duChemin
Tuesday Sept 10, 2024
7:30 PM

David duChemin

Overview

I wrote The Heart of the Photograph to explore what it means to think like a photographer. To think more creatively about line and light and moments, and to more boldly explore the use of other tools as well—devices like juxtaposition, depth, visual mass, framing, mood, mystery, scale, balance, and tension. These are the tools we use in the photographs themselves to give the subject its best expression, to give it its best shot at clearly and powerfully saying what you want the image to say.

If we change the way we think by asking ourselves better questions in the creative process, we change how we make photographs, becoming not only be more intentional but also more intuitive, so that those moments of grace—when it’s all coming together so beautifully—happen more often. Using a camera isn’t hard work, but thinking like a photographer is a longer journey. I’m hoping The Heart of the Photograph will make that journey a little less circuitous for you, and get you closer to the heart of what you love about this craft and the photographs you make.

Bio

I’m a photographer, and author, based—when I’m home—on Vancouver Island, Canada. A former humanitarian photographer creating images of hope and dignity for the international NGO community, my work pivoted after a life-altering accident while photographing in Italy in 2011. Now a below-the-knee amputee, my calling lies in turning my lens toward the natural world and nudging others to pursue a life of intention and creativity.

“Life,” to quote the late Helen Keller, “is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”