How I Created an Innovative New Approach

In 2019, I was standing on the Accademia Bridge, crossing Venice’s Grand Canal with my client. Being very sociable, he spoke to everyone who was standing next to us, explaining that he was taking a workshop. To my embarrassment, he asked if they would like to see my photography. Not wanting to appear rude, they politely agreed, so my client took out his mobile phone and showed them my photos. The instant they saw my pictures, the conversation transformed from muted and reserved to energetic and enthusiastic. Compliments came my way fast. So, when I got home, I thought about this universal reaction. – These bystanders had nothing in common, yet all responded the same way.

I realised that the only common denominator we all had was that we were all people, and people are defined by human nature. Their reaction was a result of human nature, not their artistic or photographic knowledge. – I also realised that if I could understand the process that caused this reaction, it was only logical to assume that I could reverse-engineer the process and it would produce creative guidelines to generate the reaction. I would now have reliable science-based principles to create good photography that no longer relies on subjective personal opinion, which is often biased and incomplete. The key to being good at photography wasn’t in studying photography – but in understanding people.

I also realised that if photography had codifiable underlying principles, those principles can be taught, and enthusiasts would have a reliable, trusted framework to improve their photography in a world flooded with mediocrity and photography taught by many inexperienced tutors. Today, social media influencers have hijacked photographic education, and standards have fallen. – This triggered over five years of research combining knowledge from psychology, neuroscience and artistic principles used by old master painters for hundreds of years. People learn photography by starting with the camera; in fact, we must learn the step before that: understand how people process images.