Finding the photograph right before your eyes: Duncan Davidson at TEDxBeaconStreet

Photographer Duncan Davidson explains at TEDxBeaconStreet:

The essential challenge of photography for me is to make an image that communicates meaning and emotion within the boundaries of a frame to a viewer that wasn't there with me, in the moment.

Shared cultural context and common storytelling idioms provide a foundation to work on, but its up to the photographer to build on that with the elements of what they see in front of them. Light, details, and gesture are the building blocks I use to create my images for the TED stage and, my work in the field, and even simply using my iPhone when walking about town.

I'm a geek and a creative who both lives in the world of software—such as working on the original versions of Tomcat and Ant—and photography. I've spent the last five years as photographer at large for TED creating the visuals of speakers on stage that serve as the entry point for their ideas worth spreading.

Text and video via TEDx Talks