Blind Faith (Слепая Преданность)… with Joshua J for Elska Magazine

A well known fashion and portrait photographer told me once to never overset a photograph with text. I’m not sure why exactly, but photography is full of “rules” like this.

I don’t like rules. Yes, I guess maybe they’re necessary sometimes, but we’re talking about art. Or are we? Photography is not in itself art, but you can use photography as a medium to make art. Rules hold you back. They set limits on your expression.

I can appreciate that text can be a distraction, and the text here “Слепая преданность” [“blind faith”] can be conveyed without the words. His literal covering of the eyes as well as the fraught position of his body as if wrestling with something in his mind, can convey this without needing it to be spelled out. However, it’s written in Cyrillic, and if you’re not a Russian speaker, it’s not really text but a design.

Does this post sound like I’m defending or justifying myself? Hmm, that’s not what I really want to do. I’m just trying to say that this may be a "bad" image based on the "rules", but I like it anyway, and that's what's most important.

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Originally published at insideelskamagazine.wordpress.com on October 11, 2015.