June 17, 2019

Photographs created with purpose becoming your truth, your visual relation with the outside world, our external playground where one finds a growing distance between himself and the subject, something breaking apart the intuitive vision and demanding one bend a knee to a reality someone else formed but not yours to know with certainty, the props already present at birth and corridors of the mind blocked from entering doors of your future reality.

Changing surfaces, a transition of light within boundaries. A natural flow of your imagination. 

With a true understanding of your personal, revealing vision you begin to understand not the external world but your own relationship with it. 

How does one translate light into an image? Does one seek the mood of the subject before the image is created? Will, willing something to happen begin ones journey of your independent visual journey? 

Who decides the right moment to interrelate with the subject you have chosen? Do you care, is your inner sight focused enough to look deeper into the details that begin to form a possible image, trying to understand or know on a more personal, a deeper level the scene before you?   

We seek the surface reflections that don’t cost us any time, that limits our addiction to self gratification and this brings to your soul a nagging suspicion that you are missing an important truth by pushing forward without a direction, addicted to the pleasures of being someone else rather than our true nature.

We think human beings are above the natural law.  We are superior to all creatures big and small and we control nature to bend to our egos and our lust for extravagant material gains, we think owning things brings us closer to the godlike idols, spoken of in myths and stories of great deeds done for humankind that gave one a feeling of absolute control over the earth and its people. 

We all know this is just a mental illusion of people scared of their environment and in order to relate and adapt to the impossible world present before them, created myths to counteract their terror of death.

We have no control over ourselves or mother nature. We limit our actions by controlling our emotions. We have learned through generation of redundant behavioral patterns which one works best and which ones work even better. To break the behavioral foundation of repetitive, dutiful actions we seek wealth to break free from our caste system. For as you move higher on the ladder of greed you find that your behavior becomes less about control but more about pleasure and gluttony. 

One thing is missing from this egocentric need to be more than anyone else and that is love of self and the ability to seek within yourself your visual connection with the outside world and in this connection you will be able to create your artistic expression. Being a human doesn’t mean avarice, being human is being present in your moments, taking a ride with those moments and express your image creation through your inner perspective, your unique vision that is yours only.

Your inner vision is the path you must follow.  All else is hallow doing someone else’s thoughts. You must be independent and listen to you inner motives before you can compose a scene that is worthy of your intuitive vision.

Changing surfaces, like changing imagery creates a desire to move beyond you're limiting age and societal control. Life is constantly evolving and changing but is it really changing or is that the illusion the wealthy want you to believe. For all the moneyed interests want is a buying public with a new toy to admire and purchase.

Have we really changed that much over the centuries? I don’t think so! We are still dependent on something we perceive outside ourselves something we have been conditioned to believe is higher than us on the evolutionary scale of deceit.  An outer force that demands we worship it. Call it a god or call it capitalism it means the same thing. You pay to go  church and you pay to live in a controlled conformity entangled in dull status quo like herded cattle being corralled waiting for the prepackaged emotions and thoughts being instilled in you making you conforming to the menial job of hiding behind a facade of someone else created. Your inner mind is your visual journey you must travel alone. 

There is no solid representation of our reality to make. It is in constant flux, changing not for our good but for the powers that be. In order to break free of redundant illusions you respect and acknowledge you must become an independent self capable of creating your own perceptions and your inner art externalized through image creation.

In knowing yourself as a separate being from the masses is your first step toward your inner freedom and external control.  Through image creation you express through your visual senses a concept, a word, a presence visually seen through your independent perspective, your inner self reflected in the chosen landscape. You are no longer isolated from your freedom of choice but you are becoming this freedom to choose a subject that is calling to you whereby in the past you ignored the calling, out of fear and conditioning to be obedient servants of the ones in power.  

The mindful representations of your inner perceptions, your inner world anticipates the calling of your truth that is present all around you in nature if you are strong enough to focus your intuitive insight into the external realm of falsity, seeking your own true unique vision.

You uniquely see how controlled you were previously, your vision succumbed to the prevailing redundant stereotypes until you began to express an independent voice and a sharp visual sense of your newly acquired inner freedom to choose your own subjects.  Not only choose your subjects but to relate to them, empathize with them gaining a deeper understanding of the lost years you spent in a narrow vision of this preposterous reality that we call real.

The herd will roam together for their narrow truths, lies ingrained in them from birth but until they break free from the crowded holding pen there is no hope for independence but rather a redundant vision that is sold to them repeatedly, shamefully, in order to control their inner spirit, caged and afraid to break away from the manipulative forces of pervasive ideas that don't free someone but instills in a person fear of change. For change is a natural propensity to evolve and develop new perceptions without the herd, just being yourself with a visionary plan. 

Images of lasting value must be made by your full participation in the act of creating them. This process of visual understanding doesn’t happen overnight but evolves through related visual emotions until you have found yourself being present in your moments and seeing for the first time the external worlds beauty and immaculate grace. And once a visual sense is understood than you will be on an evolutionary trajectory to become your inner voice through image creation.

An example of surface pictures is of course the Family Album. These albums are filled with snap shots that do not dig deeper under the surface of family relationships but only gives the viewer a shallow representation of the families relatives, not allowing them to be themselves but must be posed in order to depict the family in such away that a viewer will come away from the image not knowing anything about the personalities photographed.

This family album syndrome is alive and well in today’s fast paste lifestyles where no one it seems has time to slow time down and focus their visual intentions on the scene but instead looks for a surface facade that gives a minor feeling of what the image creator's intent was.

In order to touch someone visually you must go beneath the fabric of appearances and dive deeper into the undercurrents of the scene that are present, if you have the courage to create your visual study.

To have depth in your image creation you must have that deeper understanding of light and subject, which creates its own relationship as an exterior potentiality and all you need is patience, be visually alive in your moments, understanding that the real momentum is about to happen in your caring connection with the developing scene through your intuitive insight.

Expressing your inner sight through image creation gives one an understanding of the connection between the inner world and the outer world. Each subject has a potential to be a great image revealing your inner being but you must be diligent in finding the correct subject to photograph.  I have always made images of subjects that caught my eye and I have forced myself to look deeper into some subjects that didn't until the image was present in me. 

As always we must be on guard not to shoot randomly, hoping one of the image you took represents the subject in its originality.

  

Even though luck sometimes plays a role in image creation it rarely can take the place of a concentrated visual effort to look deeper into the landscape and through intuitive intensity begin to separate the formal structure of the scene from the main subject you are beginning to discover.

The goal of all great photographs is to find the image present in your reflection, present in the scene, your truth of vision mastered in a personal image revealed.

June 5, 2019

Control

What is the future plan for stock imagery?  What will the future look like for the photographers trying to make a good living creating images for the stock mega companies?

The photographer is a relic of the past. His importance has been wiped clean with the new age of see something, anything and click without a personal vision in the new era of everything needs to be photographed because everything in the modern age has an importance, a newness to the eyes of the young photographers doing their best to copy each other without a unique vision for themselves.

The new photographic vision is contained.  For who wants to think and perceive an image when in this fast paced life we live, who has the time to think, compose and reflect before entering the stage of making an image, a powerful external vision of your thoughts at the moment of exposure.

The run and gun model of image taking and then moving on as quickly as you can without understanding your present moments undermines the connectivity to the elements that are being seen and diminishes your ability to create a unique expression.

Without reaching a connection with the scene exposes the inherent detachment of the new generation of photographers with their external vision on high alert and denying their unique perspective their intuitive vision. 

If you missed the exceptional image tough cookies the next quickly composed image will be worth it. This rushing around with our sight blinded by misconceptions of visual selection imposes on the shooter a time limit on how he will approach the subject and in thinking about how to approach the subject the person gets bored and assumes that nothing is worthy of his presence here in this landscape and waiting is not an option and it is not what a photographer does, for he is a new breed of photographer attacking his subject, creating a scene without content. 

His method of seeing, being anonymous to himself and the scene in front of him climaxes the existential experience of seeing the world as a physical presence only and not a means of your personal expression. 

Surface reflections will do just fine for he doesn't even identify with the subject present and why should he spend time looking for a subject within the subject when he can grasp the entire field with one click of the shutter and then move on to the next straggling moments without understanding his infinite physical world and the means to overcome the external props that distract and ultimately through perseverance find in the reality you live in an image with purpose that expresses something that you find meaningful through your inner senses.

Instead of a connection of just a cold surface taken with narrow eyes unwilling to explore the external world through your inner visual intuition.

Snap shots have the ability to present themselves as authentic when in fact the photographer never even reflected on his subject but instead used a mechanical devise to exploit the burgeoning scene before him by creating a shallow performance of himself dulled by thoughts without focus in the scene that had potential if studied in depth by the photographer instead the photographer decided to take a few images casual anyhow and his only motivation was to hurry up and get them posted on social media. 

We are not living our lives we are running through our lives without grasping the corner stone of living in our unique present moments in the now of life. 

Image creation is a personal expression of your inner intuitive consciousness and when respecting your inner vision you want to be present in the scene, connecting with the changing light and interpreting the scene and it's details to become more than just a picture, it becomes your individual expression of this present moment.

What a gift photography can be to you as a means to express yourself without having to follow anothers vision but your own.

 

If you are at first not feeling a connection with a scene, why stop exploring it, look deeper into yourself, and find what is visually attracting your attention.  Look for new compositions that create a unique perspective, that might have the potential you were seeking to express. Don't leave a scene until you have at least explored its potential and captured some of what made you stop and look in the first place.

Stop ignoring your presence in the world. Stop just living without a purpose, just living as you passerby those unique moments of revelation.

The explosiveness of the snapshot, the ability to take images of anything has undermined and created a vast wasteland of surface perceptions that deceive the populace into thinking they are creating art when in fact they are creating a reflection of their shallow connection of exploitation. For without understanding the external world and its illusive character we are imprisoned into believing that this world is a unique expression of everybody when in fact it is the expression determined by a few to control the populace into believing they are free and are perceiving the world in their truth.  When in  fact they are experiencing an others world and their own inner uniqueness is imprisoned in someone eleses con-game.

There is too much activity for the mind to focus on and that is the intended purpose of social media.  We are being taken from our internal lives and being forced to play in the fast paste deception of a reality controlled by corporate media as a means to pull a bait and switch scam on people by keeping them distracted by an overwhelming amount of details that aren't worth anything but a means of misdirecting people from their truth and the truth of their exploitation by the hands of the accumulated wealth of a few, distracting people from the con game they are pulling each hour of each day.

The image world, a monopoly game controlled by the hands of a few major business, controlling the pricing of our image creation to suit their profit margins for their investors. We are the low man on the totem pole and will never be able to explore our abilities to create great images under the pressure of lessened value and without a means to make a living at what we must do in order to feel complete and that is create images from our inner being and express these images in an openness to willingly share our inner world with others.

The photo industry has lost its integrity and purpose.  The explosive accumulations of image creation has exploded and been detrimental for photographers thinking they can make a good living out of shooting stock photography.

The con-game guarantees that you will see a diminishing return from your unique efforts not just your image creation but also your written words. I remember decades ago when the photo agencies started to dabble in Royalty Free and tried to sell it to their photographers on its potential as a great way to sell their hard earned work. The truth is that RF is cheap and it destroys income for the full time photographers and the winners of this rat race are the buyers and the photo agencies that can automate their buying systems and cut more jobs and leave the photographers with pennies on the dollar!

The photo agencies I worked for in the 80's and into the 1990's had their priorities correct, protect their photographers making sure they were paid fairly for the effort they had to go through in order create a beautiful expression of their inner landscape.