Does Every Photograph have to Tell a Story? (feat. Maarten Rots)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Maarten's Links:
Subscribe to the 'March & Rock' Magazine: www.maartenrot...
Instagram: / maartenrots
Website: www.maartenrot...
Interviews with Maarten: jefferysaddori... and jefferysaddori...
My Links
Instagram: / seantuck
Website: www.seantucker....
Purchase a copy of Collection III:
www.seantucker...
Sign up to my Monthly Emails:
www.seantucker...
Music:
'Eyes Wide Open' by Tony Anderson
'Amber Light' by Shawn Williams
Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself: fm.pxf.io/c/35...
Get a 30-day free trial of the best music for your videos.
This is a playlist of favourite tracks of mine which I have used in previous videos: share.mscbd.fm/...
For this film I travelled to Setubal in Portugal to catch up with Maarten Rots and talk to him about his beautiful abstract photography, his pop up exhibitions, his magazine 'March & Rock', and what it's like doing all this while living the van life and travelling around Europe with his partner Anne and their little dog Laika. I hope hearing about his story and process inspires you to think more about your own photography, and perhaps abandon the notion that every image has to tell a clear story. Sometimes we can just use the camera like a painter or a designer to capture beautiful light and shape. If nothing else, Maarten teaches me to keep an eye out for the art in the everyday ordinary.
Share this video on if you found it helpful.
#abstractphotography #maartenrots #vanlife
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you. I can't stand the bandwagon UA-cam photographers who, in the last year or so, have started talking about "telling a story", as if every single image tells a story. It's pretentious and insufferable. A photo can be, just as you say, only about aesthetics and that's just fine. Story isn't needed for good photography.
But know matter what you create it speaks of something ... So it not to speak is totally insane .. you if you create it speaks about you ... So just total nonsense . Go back rubbing sticks Thomas ...
@@robertbutts9835 Yeah, I'm not going to take someone clearly illiterate seriously.
@@dakkster @ozgoodphotos when that comment was (edited) and still sounds like it's gibberish LOLLLLL
Photography is more poetry than story, at least good photography
You shall not take the word "story" so literally. I think every good photo got to have two "stories". And Maarten's photos have two "stories". The first "story" is ex. two walls, a green and a red, and a shadow. The second "story " emerge when these walls and the shadow are interacting with each other in a special way, so the viewer is't only looking at one "story" two walls and a shadow.
Just to remind me that street photography it´s not only in the big cities like New York or Tokyo. A street photographer in my homeland. Thank you.
I never saw such a thing before. Can't stop looking at the pictures. Thanks for bringing this intriguing kind of photography and way of life.
Minimal abstract photography is great. There are so many street photographers out there, you drown in a sea of street shooters. Maarten is a very nice person. I also love Franco Fontana for his color abstractions as well as Pete Turner.
There are so many types of photography. Landscape, portrait, sports, Journalism, etc. Most of us have a tendency to follow the same style and even follow guidelines, but forget to remind us that photography is all about creativity, being yourself, no rules.
I love that when you film these, you incorporate elements of the artists work into your cinematography.
Probably one of the most enjoyable and informative videos/films I have seen about photography. Superbly done. An additional bonus for me was the footage of my country. I live in the US, but was born and grew up in Portugal.
Thanks Sean wonderful video as ever. Perfect timing for me as I’m increasingly exploring abstract art in my personal work and getting away from the more editorial/commercial side that I was concentrating on. It’s FAR more meditative and enjoyable! And thanks for introducing me to Maarten - his work is superb.
Beautiful interview, Sean! Time flew. What I found was pure and liked the human aspect of it. Thanks very much, Sean, Maarten, and everyone involved.
What a beautiful multileveled documentary. Sean, your documentation of interesting photographers is so important and so well done. From exploring combat photography to Maarten’s search for mystery and wonder in the everyday, each one of your series expands the possibilities of living a image creating life for every viewer of your important work. I’m also struck by how good you are at handheld Cinema Vérité coverage. I’m particularly thinking of your coverage of Maarten taking us on a tour of his van. You are in a dance with your subject, constantly but subtly adjusting your framing and your position. It’s really good. You don’t usually work that way. I hope you do more of it in the future. If done well, as you are, Handheld adds energy to a sequence. I was also knocked out by your flipping the shot of the shadows of Maarten and his wife so they were upright and the road wasn’t. Trancendent love was present in that shot. You illustrate well how truth can emerge from abstraction as well as from realist coverage. Would you consider a future documentary on your documentary technique? I would love to hear the questions and prompts you asked Maarten but cut out in the edit. Congratulations on a big step in your work. @seantucker @seantuck
Thanks so much Roger. That's really encouraging.
Wonderful video. Thank you Sean!
Pictures talk Picture Language, 2D dynamics.They always tell, about the Photographerand sometimes, about a subject.Love your postings Sean...!
@Maarten: Tja, wie bepaalt dat? 😆
Echt tof dat je je hebt laten interviewen door Sean.
Groetjes uit Singapore.
@Sean: thank you for this beautiful interview! I love it that you stick to what makes you tick, i.e. photography, and don't read out boring press releases about futile gear.
Keep it going!
Thank you. To even think about this....and share...helps people like me
Maarten is obviously fixated on being abstract, but in a beautiful way. Beautiful since he tries to look for beauty beyond people's perceptions.
Great interview. Very inspiring, and what a nice chap Maarten seems.
He's genuinely lovely in person too:)
28:47 my favorite part
Thanks for this one Sean. Simple and beautiful.
Setúbal... thats my wife city. I go there all the time. Maarten does some great photographs. I was not aware that he was in Portugal. Fantastic video! Thanks for sharing.
Loved it. Gives you a different perspective. Thank you Sean
This totally sings to me. This guy's approach is exactly the same as mine. He's certainly a much better photographer than me, but at least I know I'm on the right path. And therefore I shall continue. Another beaut video, Sean.
Another great insight!!!! Thank you!
All I can say is WOW!!
“Resonate” is closer than “like”. Love your interviews! Now buying Maarten Rots, and sharing your videos with fellow graduates of the working class.
Such beautiful content with a fascinating insight into a photographers life! Thank you!!!
Vanlifer and photographer!!! Awesome! My dream!
This guy is just high on life, bravo...
Really incredible video! Funny, some of the locations he shot I have also in my portfolio, and it was great to see a deep essay on this style of shooting! Loved it.
Excellent.
I can only add to the positive comments below. In addition to being an extremely talented artist and photographer, Maarten seems like a very nice person. I am now going immerse myself in his Instagram, and may consider subscribing to March & Rock. Thank you for one of the most interesting UA-cam videos I have seen in a while.
what an interesting idea, topic. what a nice guy, such a good personality! a great video, Sean, well done!
Very inspirational
God I'm so happy this channel exists.
Thank you for sharing.
That’s so strange, I’ve been obsessing over this guys work recently. Looking forward to the rest of the vid lol only a min in
A very compelling story of an artist whose images don't exist to challenge but to please. It seems artitrary and very Instagram that there must be The One True Way when some much evidence ,such as this video, proves otherwise.
I want to see Sean as a cinematographer. Someday sure he will be
Nice one 👍
I see new Sean's video, I like immediately! 🙂
I love the way Dutch people speak
so pretty
To cause tension!!! And let go any interconnectedness. Not trying to ask and to find out: „How does it looks like?“ This is was abstractness means.
Storytelling is a misnomer for "dwell time" and "how many questions is a viewer trying to answer". When a person glances over a photo and never comes back, that tells a story.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and a PLU or OKOP thing.
You can shoot for yourself. If you try to make a living off that, hoping the PLU group is very big.
The question is when and where you compromise, or have to compromise. When you, in terms of making a living, are not in the right OKOP group.
PLU: people like us.
OKOP: our kind of people.
... think that x is beautiful or art, and y is not.
A story is when something is happening. A character is just a character when nothing happens and then there is no story to tell. Just be. In fact there are too many story's around that we dont need. You can even ask what are story's for? Entertainment? What is entertainment? Is pure existence entertaining? Is a story a way to escape your existence?
"Visually arresting but not necessarily narratively compelling". Word magic right there, Sean.
Ironically now Maarten's images tell a story, his story
„Enough is enough and enough is not much. Keep it simple so you can focus more.“ Striking.
I'm so happy that your channel is growing so well, showing that you don't need to go the gear-review route to do so. I really love your videos, especially these portraits.
Great video. As an artist whose medium is photography, I've thought a lot about how the nature of the medium (which is highly representational in comparison with painting, sculpture, etc) can become an obstacle for those of us trying to produce artwork that transcends any representational constrains it might feature. I used to see this highly representational nature as a limitation in photography, but now I see it more as a challenge, an opportunity not to become complacent with just taking photographs of the obvious, and push myself to do work that requires not only good visuals, but also compelling concepts behind it.
Should every photograph tell a story, or be beautiful, or feature humans in it, or this or that? I try to stay away from blanket statements involving "should"s. Photography is yet another activity in which human beings do what we tend to do so easily: we join a tribe, and then judge others from the comfort of the self-righteousness of the tribe. This is how we're quick to compartmentalize and divide an art into strict categories into which one "must" fit in, and heaven forbid one should deviate from it: street photography, fashion photography, fine art photography, etc.
To me, ultimately what matters the most is that whatever artwork one should put out into the world, hopefully the process will have served you as a process of further self-discovery and self-awakening about your relation to the world; and then, hopefully, your art will serve as a mirror in which yourself and others can look into and see the world and themselves with new eyes, maybe walk away with new questions about the established and the taken for granted.
This is what, personally, I aspire to with my work.
Lovely comment. Thanks Sergio.
Photography is an art form and the only purpose of art is to evoke emotion of some sort. Pure and simple. Great video Sean.
Thanks Marcin:)
I’m so glad you uploaded a new video! I’m following social distancing protocol and staying home, and having a new Sean Tucker video to watch has 100% made my day. Thanks for everything you do Sean! 💖
same!!!!
I’m a big Maarten Rots fan and was so glad to discover this video. I really like the way you filmed it, like a documentary of his life and philosophy.
"I love my wife", this is explain everything, the whole story in this video.
Great content as always Mr. Sean Sir, thank you.
I liked this bit too. Relationships are so important to becoming our best selves.
I thought it was great how he acknowledged her contribution to his work.
The smile in his face when he talks about his wife made me speechless
A welcome distraction from the corona virus concerns.. Looking forward to watching it!
This was so awesome. I could listen to him talk about his process and thoughts on his art, how he thinks, and just how he approaches photography. Also I am in love with his van.
As a minimalist I love the minimalist values he represents. Living a life with intention and passion. Try to make the thing you love the thing you get to do everyday.
I'm not a minimalist and I loved this video, maybe trying to fill my void with other aspects of life. In the end, is all about love, whatever kind of love it is
Dear Sean, that is - as always - outstanding content. The interesting subject mater and Maarten's extremely friendly presentation as well as the filming itself (that perfect street photography moment at 8:43!) were for a lack of a better word eye opening. Thank you and keep doing what you do!
I seek those little compositions out in my everyday photography. It's my favorite style...
In my own evaluation of what I enjoy photographing AND others' abstract art/photography, I think you can categorize what "value" abstract images have by what part of the brain they excite and what part of the brain that we GIVE to the image. SOME art... the images that we MOST commonly describe/label as art... are very cerebral and do tell a narrative, as you say. But the value in OTHER art MAY be because they excite another, possibly more primitive part of our brains. Just as we react to a tiger jumping out at us microseconds before we even recognize it as a tiger... THAT part of the brain (thalamus? 🤔) reacts to different stimulus QUICKER and on a visceral level. We FEEL that! It has a different but just as valid value to us. It is like eating ice cream when you're actually already quite full of Foie gras.
This is exciting, Sean! Thanks!
Very interesting video and very interesting photographer! Thank you so much! Last year in Greece I made some pictures, and re-using your words from another video (about style, I think), Maarten's pictures "justify" and explain what I did there and what I was looking for.
Thanks for this very interesting video. Love the work you do and the way you like to express your thoughts during each video. I've been following you for about 2 years now. Enjoy each vid you do.
Sean, there is so much that is so good about this video, but I'll just mention two (related) things. You as the interviewer disappear through the whole video. You are the engine of the interview but you make yourself unseen and unheard to allow the subject to take all the focus. The ONLY place that you uncloak is to ask the question that he answers "I love my wife" which supplies the emotional heart of this story. So well done!
Maartens work is wonderful. In my eyes. Like your video about him, like all your videos about other photographers.
Thank you, Sean.
Thanks so much Robert. These little docs are actually my favourite to make at the moment.
Charming. Thought-provoking. Thank you.
Cool guy - lovely philosophy and approach to life. “Who says?” Indeed
Sean, thais is a beautiful portrait of an amazing photographer. Great job.
Alex Webb's street photos don't tell a story and I don't think you can argue they are less interesting in any way.
I follow him on IG and like his shots!
Maarten has really great energy. Fun video, thanks for sharing!
I love that his work is fueled by fascination. Knowing that makes his abstracts photos feel so human. From now on, no matter where I go, I'll try to be just as fascinated and explore. Even the smelly the parts of the city
Thank you for the last 31 minutes! It is a joy to learn of Maarten's story and I loved his response to (paraphrasing) "Anything you would like to add? I love my wife!"
Great guy, superb work and a wonderful outlook on life.
I've been doing just this in Madrid since my girlfriend gave me a tele lens for my birthday. Partly it frustrates me because I was saving it as something to take out later on, but partly I love to see someone doing a kind of street photography that caught my attention almost by accident a few months ago. Thank you Sean for bringing me closer to the work of this photographer and for making such interesting content that motivates us and makes us believe more in what we do as photographers. Greetings from Spain. Leo
The street videos are so beautifully shot it's hard to tell where the videos end and the photographs start
I love Maarten’s philosophy and work. This was a great interview and brilliant cinematography. But Leica was the star of the film!
Thanks for sharing Sean. Thisis a very interesting young man.
I really like Sean's channel is the perfect combination of videos and the guest's images. I really enjoy this. :)
Wow fantastic film, what a great guy, and as for that van, very cool, did you see the reflecion in the rear window,
I saw an interesting shot there, you always pick some lovely music Sean, how about a vlog looking at reflections,
that could make a good photo look great, just a thought, love the dog, this man is is very interesting for shure.
That spiral staircase looks very interesting, and all those textures, brilliant, alaways love your work, ideas,
I think you are very cool Sean, and your friends are the kind of people I am very drawn too, right coffee mate,
catch you later, all the best.
Thanks so much Clive.
I love how humans unselfishly help others. If you ask someone a question, you usually get an answer. It’s hard coded in our DNA. And helping like you do Sean and Maarten, create ripples on the water. Making others happy, and willing to help others just like you do. This video gave me a lot. I can relate to what Maarten talks about. In times of world struggle, it’s important to keep the kind human help ripples going. Do our part in spreading kindness so others want to do the same. Kindness might be the antidote we need against the fear these unconscious and dangerous little microbes evoke in us.
What a lovely comment. Thanks Johan.
What a beautiful human being. Love his work. Hoping I can get a magazine or two.
Inspired me to start experimenting with abstract colours and shadows...THANK YOU!
What "AMAZING" images, abstract photography is always art that I really admire cause not everyone as the eye for it. What a humble man, and his last comment!!! Aww.... =)
Great insights. Thank you !!
I couldn´t agree more and I think he and his wife do live my dream of life ;) A N D artistically I try to add this layer of subjects to my street photography to inspire my mind for the next approach towards people. Like B-Roll in the current results A N D month of march is the perfect month for beautiful light here in Central (Northern) Europe.
You are really good at this, Sean. Thanks for sharing their story.
Another brilliant interview! I love the uninterrupted stream of consciousness style of your interviews. They’re so authentic and genuine.
Exquisite video man. Wow..
Really engaging story about Maarten and his life work. Thank you for posting this and thank you for letting Maarten tell his story.
Great video! It's good to see someone following their passion and keeping life in general really simple. He's fortunate to have a wife who feels the way he does, which is a big plus. Life is short and so many don't pursue that which brings true happiness. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sean this was one of the most compelling vlogs you have made. Maarten’s approach to life, photography and his ability to conceptualise, visualize and then talk about it in such a lucid and interesting way is captivating. The way you put these stories together is marvelous and has put you head and shoulders above other you tube photography driven providers. Thoroughly absorbing and thought provoking. Thank you and regards from the desert. Steve. Dubai.
Another brilliant contribution to the world of photography. Thanks to Sean Tuck for his awesome work helping all of us to 'keep an eye out for the art in the everyday ordinary.'
What a wonderful story, it touched me very deep, because , perhaps, in the inside I would do that. I'm really happy for Marteen, his wife and they wonderful fur kid! Wish them the best and enjoy always your freedom!!!!! Thank you Sean!
So wonderful to see someone getting off their backside, shaping their world in pursuit of their passion. Also the support of his wife is evident and helps his confidence to continue.
One of the most beautifully filmed videos ever. The lighting, soft background, sound quality, simple camera work all added up to a stunning video. With a story that has immense impact on how I will move forward in my photography.
This was not a traditional interview, this was much better. Thanks, Sean.
does a photo have to tell a story? in my opinion no, sometimes a photo is just nice to look at, I do believe there is a story behind every photo.
I really like his van, I've been looking at doing something like that only with a motorcycle and small trailer want to take a year and travel around before my body gives out.
Grande Sean!!! Nicely done....
Beautiful, inspiring video! Love Maarten's attitude toward photography and life. My thanks to both of you for creating it and sharing it with us. Happy shooting, everyone.
Very good video. I enjoyed it a lot'!
I've been following Maarten for a while an I like his art. Thak you for showing me the real person behind the images!
Oh, finally the video you've mentioned to me about! As always lots to learn, thank you Sean :)