December 30, 2020

Language like pure intuition moves experience into the abstract away from the finality of grounded reality, this reality defies words.

Life begins with blood and the stillness of death for in birth we are condemned to die.
What supports us in our time here on earth? I believe it is photography and poetry. Others have their own personal revelations of the art they wish to explore and share.

I feel we are being numbed to the natural beauty that surrounds us and we are as photographers looking for details that skim along the surface of a scene and doesn’t do the landscape justice.

I think technology is a landslide covering us with an intellect unable to break free from it's conditioning and seeks simplicity of thoughts reflected in the careless photos being taken of redundant subjects.

If the photographers looked deeper into the scene they could have made a statement of its beauty and not a surface reflection of inconsistent details.

What are your mental sticking points, details that demand you create an image of? You do not want to be conditioned to repeat snap shots that have no interior and exterior purpose. Look inward to find what your interests are. Do not be lead down a path of spewing hate for other human beings because of your childhood conditioning. Open up to the world’s beauty and the beauty of all races living on the same planet. Photography is your conduit to a broader acceptance of your inner vision and the external subjects that can bring you deeper into the creation of great unique images. Let go of self doubt, your anger is toward your lack of empathy with the world.

The world is not a play field to be demeaned by callus actions.

Seek your vision your connection to everything around you that has been waiting for you to open your eyes, your personal truth expressed through your photographs.

Photography has become frozen tv dinners. Just put your dinner in the microwave and wait a few minutes and your done.

You see something in the scene that catches your eye but you don’t really know what you're looking for, the subject before you is
overwhelming your senses.

It is intimidating to just be present and wait for those moments of light without trying to copy an image you saw in a magazine and besides you are on a tight schedule so you just better start snapping pics of anything that looks pretty.

Cameras are already set to take the pictures for you without your thoughtful input.

We get conditioned as we grow up to perceive reality through the eyes of our parents and friends. But art is not seeing through another’s eyes, it is your responsibility to break free from the copycat imitations and create unique images that you found, studied and made.

We should not fear our individuality we should embrace it.

Photography steals from reality its continuity and an overall scene is reduced to a segment of the landscape, person, architecture, animals, street scene, violence, wars, climate, poverty, criminality, religion etc…

And because the camera captures external reality that surrounds us we see a stillness in the image but also a purpose, a reflection of your inner skills to make something in changing light.

History is a liars paradise for in our life path any words written down became truthful voices describing the times of our ancestors our grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers, fathers their lives were told through authors good or bad, newspapers, books, schools, preachers chasing a buck.

But we know now that this was a con game to divert the criminality of our elected officials, our police force, our military, our justice department, our land owners, our billionaires, our taking land from the indigenous tribes, the slavery of innocent human beings taken from their homes all in the name of the united states of injustice etc…

But now we have phone cameras, small cameras, big cameras, video cameras where everything is documented and the truth shines through.

Of course not, the rich’s propaganda machine is constantly spewing out misinformation in order to confuse the populace into believing that their lives are as they should be. Creating tension and anger toward different cultures, other human beings trapped in the same mess as all of us as the elevator of money goes up but never down to the people who need it the most!

Lets face it, the touch of money is addictive and in this addiction we lose our moral values and become addicts of exploitation.

If you listen to the fluff of false inaccuracies on the tv networks news these talking heads that give us only bits of truth to keep us placated by creating hateful cliches, the result is undermining our openness to accept all peoples instead of blaming others for our predicament when in this absurd reality of wealth the rich are the culprits of criminality, oligarchs that own the world! As we sit silent lumps on a log without the courage to stand for justice and not the stealing of our planet for profit over human beings.

We try to hide our lives in abstractions to extend our life in hopes of painless illusions of self worth. But we don’t look at ourselves through our own intuitive inner vision but we more often than not listen to outside voices deciding our future for us. This eliminates any chance that your true voice will be heard, your true vision seen through photography, writing, paintings, etc… all pushed aside so you are forced to live a life under the thumb of the powerful propaganda dictating to you where you belong and what your life will be.

You must attempt to over throw the disconnected life experiences in your earthly conditioning because that is the great barrier we must overcome if you want to become an individual with your own unique visual purpose.

What is photography to you? Is it a documentation of your life? A glorious means of expression? Is image creation an expression of self?

Photography for me has been a way of life. A destination of seeing nature and humanity in a new light.

Photography has a god like ability to stop time, freeze it in a frame that allows you to look back in time to see how your photographic instincts matured and your images got better and better.

Photography takes from our external world pieces of our reality and stills the rushing of our lives toward death!

If you find yourself taking pictures of certain subjects and ignoring other potential scenes you are in a narrow minded fear of change. Broaden your horizon seek your path within yourself and then look outward at the beauty you have missed.

We all have been there, tried something and failed and you give up, well that is defeat at its worst level. To let go of your potential for creating beautiful images is a sign of your ego worrying about what others say concerning your image creations. The question you must ask yourself is do you like them, your images, who cares what others say about your work all they are trying to do is confine your artistic talent because they are jealous of your unique vision.

We want our images to be liked for each image taken has the potential to become an iconic representation of a reality constantly shifting.

Image creation in the wrong hands can become a technological curse, a lessening of a photographers ability to make a living. Technology now can create subjects that look real but aren’t. These images are created on computers without a need of a camera.

We are entering a cursed future where any image can be manipulated or created to look like something else.

Lets face it professional photography is obsolete. It started with film being obsolete and then digital cameras became an easy access to beginners to create images that were passable to give to photo agencies and then camera phones sealed the deal, everyone is a photographer and are willing to accept pennies on the dollar just to see their photography on an agencies website.

When you think of the amount of images taken each minute, each hour, each day it blows your mind!

Photography used to be a love of your external world seen through your unique vision of subjects chosen.

There was nothing better than hiking miles into the forest and coming upon a waterfall that burst open your photographic talent.

Now photography is a tsunami of look alike subjects that have no meaning or purpose.

I have said this before but photography is only a commodity that has no other purpose than to make the big photo agencies money and the image creators get duped into believing their creations are worth only peanuts.

But now of course photo agencies are giving the photographers work away of free. What is it about people that they can’t see the greed of money rampant in the demise of the stock photo agencies once a friend of the photographers! Now a bully limiting any chance to make a living off our hard earned work.

The corporations have destroyed any chance of photographers making a living creating stock images and must look elsewhere for new avenues of income. But that will be hard to do since photography is no longer looked upon as an art form but now treated like day old bread.

The absolute bombardment of images taken,
undermining talented photographers to move away from their chosen field because who can compete against the tsunami of photos taken every second, a constant bombardment of redundancy, a narrow belief in ones talent.
 
Your efforts to create your unique vision is not a lost cause for your success is not an addiction to the run and gun image creations happening now, a standard means of ego’s wanting to be seen as prolific and then the manipulation of the image on the computer, but a determined vision to continue doing what you love to do expressing your inner vision of nature and humanity. Your individuality, your path of self realization exists in the photographs you make. Your unique perspective is yours and yours alone.

Yes, you will not be paid for your efforts as before but photography for you is a passion, a statement of expressive honesty, your documentation of poverty, wars, protests all needed to try and break through the wall of deceit by the 1%.

We all want to be liked for what we create. But that is not the only purpose driving the artist. An artist has to create something that represents his internal fight with the external reality governing our lives.

If we keep allowing the manipulation of our minds toward possessing material things then as a race we are lost in the corporate power of greed. We don’t need more stuff we need more empathy toward our fellow human beings!