19

Harmony

ONE OF THE MOST COMMON REACTIONS I have to images of photographers first beginning their journey (and which I have to my own early work) is that the image lacks harmony. It lacks unity. There are a lot of elements in the frame and they don’t all work together to create a single, cohesive whole. It’s as if they’re all there only by the force of the frame holding them together.

My central premise for this book is that the heart of the photograph is not just the subject of the image, but the best expression of that subject, as the photographer chooses. Harmony is the agreement of all the elements to support that goal. When you say you want the image to be about the relationship between two people, or the chaos on a street in India, or the way the light hits the land and sea on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, harmony is achieved when everything in the image is working together to that one end, and no element is fighting your intent.