Guy Tal | Photographer, Author
This is a reader-supported, ad-free zone. Please consider becoming a patron.
To speak of “reading” a picture is appropriate but dangerous at the same time because it suggests a comparison with verbal language, and linguistic analogies, although fashionable, have greatly complicated our understanding of perceptual experiences everywhere. —Rudolf Arnheim Generalizations are dangerous things. Sweeping statements, even if true in some cases (or even if true in... Continue Reading →
Art is too complex and diverse to be explicable in terms of a single category such as the aesthetic. ‘Artistic value’ is constituted by a set of different kinds of value. The modes of appreciating art, the means to understanding art, the kinds of objects that are artworks are also all plural. —Robert Stecker There... Continue Reading →
Announcements: After prematurely announcing its final date a few years ago, the Moab Photography Symposium will be back in September, 2025! I will join several of my talented photo colleagues and have the privilege of delivering the closing presentation. Seating is limited, so be sure to reserve your places in both the main event and... Continue Reading →
How can you expect a beholder to experience my picture as I experienced it? A picture comes to me a long time beforehand; who knows how long a time beforehand, I sensed, saw, and painted it and yet the next day even I do not understand what I have done. How can anyone penetrate my... Continue Reading →
My new book, Be Extraordinary: Philosophical Advice for Photographic and Other Artists is now available for purchase and immediate download. (Note that you may also purchase the book from ebook sellers, such as Amazon, Google, or Apple Books. However, if you purchase the ebook directly from my website, you will receive both an EPUB version... Continue Reading →
Those who feel guilty contemplating “betraying” the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyal . . . is in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same... Continue Reading →
Recently, I've had the pleasure of interviewing with my friend and photographer extraordinaire, Richard Bernabe, for his excellent podcast, Beyond the Lens. Richard and I have known each other a long time, but this was the first time we sat down to record a deep conversation about our approaches to photography. I enjoyed it very... Continue Reading →
Note: My upcoming book, Be Extraordinary, is now available to pre-order! Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. —Aldo Leopold Art and nature have this in common: they affect some people more profoundly... Continue Reading →
It’s always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don’t make changes, don’t risk disapproval, don’t upset your syndics. It’s always easiest to let yourself be governed. There’s a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your... Continue Reading →
Please consider joining me for one or both of these upcoming virtual presentations: January 3rd: Be Extraordinary Kicking off the new year, I will rejoin Nic Stover's Nature Photography Classes Speaker Series to review themes from my upcoming book, Be Extraordinary: Philosophical Advice for Photographic (and Other) Artists. I will explain some of the ideas... Continue Reading →