The photo received over 400,000 likes, but many of the thousands of comments on the image called him out on his proclaimed disdain for the setting of our solar system’s trusty star.
Here are some examples:
- “Don’t be dumb. Everyone loves a good sunset.”
- “Usually not a big fan of sunsets, said no one ever except for this guy.”
- “That’s like not liking the Beatles …”
- “I bet you’re not a fan of many things.”
- “Grrrrrr this sunset is making me so angry, puppies, newborns, and kittens are all the same …”
- “wtf???”
Unterthiner wanted to explain himself, explain why he chose to post that particular image. “I was amazed by the shape of the clouds and the blue spot on the right corner. It was a balance of dark color, shape, and composition.”
He’s not a beauty hater. In fact, he enjoys witnessing the sun sink beneath the horizon. “On the beach with my wife with a beer in my hand, I’m a lover of sunsets,” he says to me over the phone. But as a photographer, he’s looking for something more complex. “Sunsets are boring because everyone is taking photos of the sky getting red when the sun approaches the horizon. A very classic sunset is very far from photography—it’s very close to our memories and our pictures on holiday. It belongs more to your daily life than real photography.”
“As a photographer I always try to have a new view. I’m looking for something which is not just about color. Color can be part of the composition but not the most important part. I’m not taking a picture of the sky just because it’s red.”
I asked Unterthiner for one last piece of advice to share with people interested in photographing sunsets. “Look at the sunsets you’ve shot before, and try to make a different one next time. It can be a nice memory to shoot the sunset in a different way. Don’t make the same picture all the time,” he says. And if that doesn’t work? “If you take a picture that looks similar to the last picture of a sunset you took, it’s better that you watch the sunset and put your camera in your bag.”
read more: PROOF
