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Response to I want to spend the next year of my life emulating this guy's work. Does that make me lame?

from John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com)
I don't believe in anyone being a "natural." Eolo's training in graphic arts is what has given him his foundation. And he has mastered (at least some) of the basic techniques you need to do fashion and advertising work at a professional level (though he's going to need to be able to work in a studio). He could make a living now, and will undoubtedly go on to continue to grow and become a great photographer. But open up any women's magazine to any random page and you'll see similar shots (though, admittedly, quite a few not up to his standard). Featured photographers have developed - or at least advertised - unique styles.

(And I wonder just how many people who respond so viscerally to his work really desire to emulate it - or rather are just fantasizing over his perceived lifestyle?)

As a web-design aside, horizontal scrolling (though not quite the way it's implemented on Eolo's site) is going to become the standard in the future. We see in panoramas (something photographers should be aware of), and wide aspect-ratio screens will soon be commonplace.

Vertical scrolling is a vestige of text-oriented days (and still fine for that application). All that current web designers have done is take two-dimensional text-based magazine design and put that online - with a bunch of javascript in lieu of true interactivity. The next generation of web designers - the ones who have grown up with high- bandwidth interactive multimedia will turn to metaphors which explore the possibilities of visual design and interactivity in much more imaginative ways - and the widescreen panorama is going to be a major part of that (though the scroll bars are going to have to go away!).

(posted 8435 days ago)

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