Why I Make Images

by William Lulow

I have always loved pictures! Images have always played a part in who I am as a person because I seem to have been drawn to making them almost as a matter of fact while growing up. I have always been fascinated by the entire process, from the days I used to spend in a makeshift darkroom, to my professional studio darkroom where we processed reams of sheet film, right up to today’s digital processes. There has been a love of documenting the world that goes deep into my very soul. As I have gotten better at making photographs, that “seeing” has also gotten more profound. It has become a process of creating something beautiful to view!

In the beginning, it was trying to perfect the science of photography that consumed me. In fact, I paid so much attention to the details of a good exposure, great composition and perfect lighting that I sometimes forgot all about what I was trying to say with my photographs. It seemed like it was all about the “perfection of image-making.” But that was part of my training period as it were. I have always said, that you have to learn the science before you can do the art, no matter what form it takes, sculpture, painting, photography even and especially to an art like woodworking.

I had to perfect the lighting, exposure, development and printing of the final image in order to be satisfied on kind of a visceral level that then, transformed into looking for some kind of definitive image that could express what I felt about where and when I was somewhere, doing something. 

So, my first trip to Italy, at this stage of my life, I was impressed with the sheer beauty of the country as well as interested in making these kinds of definitive images of the places I visited:

Here an image of gondolas in Venice,

Here one of the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

And here, one of the Colosseum in Rome. As I have been writing in the last few articles, some of these places are hard to photograph definitively. The Colosseum is so huge that you would need perhaps a drone shot (up pretty high for that matter) to get an all-encompassing shot, so one usually just has to concentrate on details that convey the sense of size. When you visit famous sites with your camera, it’s almost impossible, under normal daylight circumstances, to get an image with no people in it! Here, the people actually convey what I wanted to say about this place. Look how small they all are! 

So, for me, it is always an attempt to capture something of the essence of a place. And even though I may not be making these images to sell them, they have to say something to me to be put in my collection. 

Again, I am always making pictures. Sometimes for clients, but most of all for me. Even when I am on assignment I am shooting for me. The images have to please me in some way even if they are used for an advertisement, a magazine cover or a publicity shot. My headshots need to make me want to look at them:

They have to be special in some way even if I do many in one day:

They also have to say something definitive about my feelings about the subject.

Here’s a kind of definitive portrait:

This is an image made in a night club of a performer who wanted me to stop taking pictures. The lighting, pose and expression all manage to say something about this musician so even though he thought I had made enough images, this is the one that said it all.

Headshots are very commercial-looking images of people made for a specific purpose – to appeal to people who need to look at them:

They should be images of the people at their best, made with good lighting and very little shadow.

A portrait, on the other hand, can be whatever the photographer thinks it should be, and when I do them, I am always looking for some great expression and lighting even if it is used for a commercial purpose:

So my basic reason to take pictures and make images is because I am drawn to it. I have said many times to my students that once you begin to study classical studio lighting for portraits, you will never again look at a scene or a photograph without noticing the light. It becomes a part of your everyday seeing, from sunrises to sunsets and even at night! You just can’t help noticing what light does in our world. The next logical step is to want to document it. Here, a sunrise:

And here, a sunset:

So, it’s really about making beautiful images and/or compelling pictures that viewers would want to see. And, to a certain extent, it’s also about documenting the world around you. Go out and enjoy what you see. Take pictures and leave footprints.