Valuing simplicty in all mediums

As the author of the daily NBA column Taking it to the Rack, I have put much effort into simplifying my writing style. Just months ago, I was regularly churning out 2,000-plus word columns complete with several sentences coming close to hitting triple-digit word counts. What I found was that many of those who read me were either missing my point because they were getting bogged down in a mass of nonrestrictive clauses and parenthetical references, or that they weren’t even getting to the point because the columns were so long that they weren’t bothering to read to the end. Through a lot of trial and error over the past few months, I have been able to refine my style such that I feel like my work comes off as much more streamlined and far more understandable and appealing to the average reader.

It was this very lesson of the value of simplicity that hit me hardest from the works of David Snider and David LaBelle. LaBelle stresses the value of not letting a photograph become too cluttered with extraneous detail. As I read these words, it occurred to me that as a reader, I don’t want to have to do too much work to figure out what is going on in a picture. I want an image that jumps out at me and for the most part tells the story it needs to tell on its own without my assistance. This rang through strongly, as it reminded me of my readers’ desires not to have to fight through loads of ‘aside’ references in my columns to get to the crux of my work.

Meanwhile, many of Snider’s images perfectly illustrate LaBelle’s point about simplicity. He is quite willing to take a picture with few people and a lot of open space, so long as he can make the his focus – be it a person, an action or an emotion – undoubtedly clear to the viewer. Given the trials and tribulations I have gone through with my writing style, it is my intention to transfer the understanding I have gained about the value of simplicity from both my own experiences and from these two readings to my own photojournalism work right from the start.