The perfection of imperfect photos

[lynnb]

gulls in flight, Dee Why beach, Sydney, March 2013. #374
Olympus XA TX320 D76 11m15s @20C V700
I’ve had a fascination with BIF since I first saw Ernst Haas’s motion studies published in his book The Creation in the 1970s.

 

[peterm1]

I do not think I have posted this here before. It is produced by a case of genuine unintentional camera movement. 😳
Shot from a mezzanine balcony it depicted a table of young men in a food hall below. I had neglected to change the shutter speed somehow, so the shot ended up radically blurred.
Fortunately, the bright color of the blue chairs and the even brighter bright pop of red from what appears to be someone's sweater made it an interesting abstract photo rather than the mundane street shot it would otherwise have been.
Thank you serendipity gods. 😛

 

[deadrangefinder76]

Love the imperfection ever since, love it!!! thanks!!!

 

[Archiver]

I was just leafing through my copy of Elliott Erwitt's book Unseen, and his work exemplifies the perfection of the imperfect. His sense of composition, light and subject matter completely compensated for any technical issues with his images. They are full of motion blur and soft focus, and yet they are so evocative without being overdone. A master like Erwitt knows how to break the rules without the result looking 'bad'.

 

[Jonathan R]

I was just leafing through my copy of Elliott Erwitt's book Unseen, and his work exemplifies the perfection of the imperfect. His sense of composition, light and subject matter completely compensated for any technical issues with his images. They are full of motion blur and soft focus, and yet they are so evocative without being overdone. A master like Erwitt knows how to break the rules without the result looking 'bad'.

I totally agree that Unseen is a supreme example of what this thread is about. But I'm not sure that Erwitt deliberately broke rules in taking them. I think it's more the case that the photos turned out to have obvious flaws, and may initially have been rejected, but on re-evaluation were seen to be very much worth having nonetheless.

 

[Leon C]

Personally, as has been said by others elsewhere, to be consistantly and deliberately 'wrong' at something usually means you really know what you are doing, although for me there is no 'wrong' in photography, someone will love even what some think is the worst pic ever taken....It's all in the head.