Three Things I Learnt From Abstract: The Art of Design — Episode 4

Arshdeep Matharu
Jul 25, 2017 · 2 min read

Episode 4 of Abstract: The Art of Design is about a Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels. Bjarke is one of the world’s premier architect and one of the youngest too, to have achieved such prominence in the field. He runs his own architectural firm, called BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and can be found online at www.big.dk (yes, that’s really their website).

Here are three things that I learnt from it.

Experimenting

Bjarke and later his group of architects broke the traditions of Danish architecture. His designs are known for stretching the boundaries of what’s possible in architecture.

In my photography, I experiment a lot and I enjoy pushing my photographs to the edge of what is comfortable even for me. This helps me creatively to see what the possibilities are and to think beyond the norms.

Grove at Grand Bay
Grove at Grand Bay

Criticism

With experimentation and breaking of the rules came criticism for the partners at BIG.

I’m all for inviting criticism and critique to our photography. However, I think we need to be mindful of whose critique (and compliments) we listen to. Seek out mentors who you respect and invite them to review your work. Don’t worry about the comments on 500px or Flickr from the people who we don’t know.

Sketch

Throughout this episode and the ones that came before it — one of the things that you notice these artists do a lot is sketching out their concepts.

This is something I think photographers, including me, don’t do nearly enough. I’ve started doing this recently — to stop expecting every image to be great and have a play around with different ideas and angles. Not all of these sketch images are going to be great but they will help you get to that one image that really works.



If you enjoyed the story (or didn’t) and would like to comment on it, you can get in touch with me on www.arshdeep.nz

Arshdeep Matharu

Written by

Fine art photographer.. of sorts. Follow me my (at least) weekly blog on Medium or on http://www.arshdeep.nz

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