In Praise of Musicality

Fixing the Main Problem with Photography

Did you ever notice the many important qualities in your life and work that don’t have a name? They are there if you would consider them, but they lack a name that lets you think or talk about them.

That’s the case with musicality in the writing and especially in the performing of music. If you point it out, most people will recognize what you’re talking about. But unless you do, its presence or absence goes unnoticed.

In this article I’m going to talk about musicality and relate it to photography, an activity that occupied much of my time and interest during the last 39 years.

My First Awareness of Musicality

One day when I was in 10th grade, I was having a discussion with a classmate named Stan, a person who often irritated me with his misunderstandings. He was a piano student and said he thought there was nothing more to piano playing than just hitting the right keys. Like typing.

My first reaction was this is so dumb. And frustrating. I played two instruments at that time, sang in the school chorus, and was a passionate collector and listener when it came to pop and classical music.

Don’t tell me when Arthur Rubinstein played Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, his widely appreciated brilliance in performance was just a matter of hitting the right keys.

And what about Vladimir Horowitz, who would hit wrong notes frequently as he got older? Yet he was appreciated by both fans and critics as a top performing artist.

Even my 15-year-old brain knew Stan was wrong. But I didn’t have an argument to refute him or even a word to describe the critical quality he overlooked.

Years later I found out. That elusive but critical quality I was trying to refer to is called musicality. It refers to qualities like voicing, rhythm, and phrasing. It includes a half dozen other, more subtle qualities as well. It’s not just the notes, but how you play them.

Musicality separates the magical performance of a great virtuoso from the pedestrian playing of the talented amateur. 

How to Think About Musicality

Here are two examples, one from philosophy and the other from the culinary arts.

The great German philosopher Kant thought that before we experience the world, we had to process the raw data that came into our brains. We did this by imposing on this data 12 abstract concepts he called the categories. Until we did that, we couldn’t absorb or understand the mass of raw data.

Isn’t that what musicality does to music? Sequences of notes don’t become music, or at least not very good music, until musicality shapes it and gives it a living form. And this form allows it to be appreciated as music, rather than random sounds strung together.

The same is true in the case of a great chef. First he takes raw ingredients. Then he uses the culinary arts to transform those ingredients into something splendid and on a higher level than the materials he started with.

Is there musicality in photography?

There should be! And it’s there in the work of all the great shooters. But there’s not a word for it.

I’m referring to that cluster of traits that elevates the art and practice of photography beyond mere technical correctness. These are the qualities that make images come alive, that give them meaning and value.

The best word I can think of is visuality. This enables the photographer not just to see and record what she see. It shapes what she sees. It gives her image a personal point of view and makes it uniquely hers.

Components of Visuality–The Expressive Shaping of What Is Seen

Some of these components are more important than others. The emphasis you choose becomes part of your signature style as a photographer.

Emphasizing one of these qualities over the others will let you create a unique image, an image that stands out from the mass of generic treatments of the same subject matter.

Here are some of the elements of visuality:

• Phrasing–How you group visual elements, separate them, repeat them

• Tonality Flow–How highlights, shadows, and mid-tones work together for expressive power

• Compositional Rhythm–Create timing and movement by arranging visual elements in the image

• Perceptual Cadence–The speed of the viewer’s engagement as her eye moves across the image, with some images grabbed in a glance and others savored part by part

• Luminance Shape–Using patterns of light to form emotional reactions

• Framing Breath–Giving the subject breathing room to draw attention to it

• Expressive Geometry–Using visual space to convey structure and feeling in an open or closed space

• Optical Mood–Coordinate visual rhythm, tone, and pacing to create an atmosphere that works for the image.

How to Use the Elements of Visuality

At first these elements might seem too “arty” for some people. Let me assure you, they are grounded and professional. And you’ll come to appreciate this as soon as you start working on the first one.

Some of these operate within the frame of a single image. Where they shine is in a series of images, whether it be a series of still images or a movie.

You achieve a better understanding of each element by looking through a range of photographic work and finding samples which unfold each quality. Many will be examples showing more than one of these qualities.

Play with one element at a time in your work until shooting with it becomes almost unconscious.

Then move on to the next until you have full mastery of each element. This mastery will then show in your work and elevate it to a new, higher level of meaning, value, and beauty. The transformation will be almost immediate. Using this approach will advance you as a photographic artist. No kit of lenses and other gadgets can achieve anything like this.

An Alternative Approach to Visuality

The concept of visuality can be broken down in different ways. 

Here’s another perspective on breaking down visuality that follows along with our analogy to musicality and uses elements used in painting and drawing:

• Use light as the melody–let it move through the image musically

• Let shadow and negative space be the silence that punctuates the melody (lighter areas), even more important in black-and-white photography

• Create pacing within the frame for visual tension and areas of calm

• Use rhythm in your composition by repeating shapes, patterns, and flows

• Use tone dynamically through contrast, gradients from light to dark, and intensity

• Use gesture, line, and shapes to create flow within the frame

• Timing–Like the Decisive Moment of Ansel Adam that tells the right story or captures a peak emotional moment

• Color harmony or dissonance–Use a color palette that expresses a mood, just like musicians compose music in various major or minor keys

• Textural Dynamics–Using various textures brings the tactile dimension to your images

• Visual Voice–Combining each of these qualities in your own special way will showcase your unique style of expression.

Summary

Here’s what most photographers do when creating images. They gather some gear, e.g. a camera and some lenses. Then once they learn how to use that gear, they start snapping generic pictures. That’s how most people view the art of photography. Sadly this even includes a high percentage of pros.

Most of these people try to get interesting subject matter to give their photos more appeal. Some work to increase their technical knowledge and improve technical skills to improve the presentation. But they spend little energy working on how to snap their pictures. Any artistic value achieved by this process is usually rare and accidental.

I’m proposing you try a more intentional approach, an approach that was the daily habit of most great photographers. When this is done, even pictures taken for their practical value can be infused with meaning, emotion, and value. As an example, consider the documentary war photography of Jame Nachtwey and the many striking images it includes.

By concentrating on visuality, you give your image a personal imprint and a style rather than the generic image making that is most common in amateur and some professional work. Yes, there are some minimum levels of technical competence that should be achieved, but making technical considerations the essence of photography is horribly mistaken.

This kind of thinking about how we do things can and should be applied to many human activities, not just music and photography.

John Manning

More than 39 years of experience as a professional photographer specializing in fashion and executive portraits, photo teacher, and coach.