July 19, 2015
Photography is subjects framed in rear view mirrors. An infinite recurrence, a repetitious desire to reclaim our present moments through our growing past.
Dandelions Close-up
Dandelions In Black And White
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
July 5, 2015
Susan Sontag wrote, “ To photograph is to confer importance. There is probably no subject that cannot be beautified; moreover, there is no way to suppress the tendency inherent in all photographs to accord value to their subjects.”
Good photography equals good visual design. Those visual elements that enhance the subjects possibilities and gives the viewer only the necessary details that make up your unique perspective. Your not going to confuse the viewer with unwanted details.
A snap shot is a quick memory taken with no real dialogue exchanged between the photographer and subject.
With a snap shot you don’t have to organize your composition all you need is a quick trigger finger and your ready to run and gun.
Photography is a visual concept. Through image creation we discover the underlying reality in which our memories and experiences combine to create the ground work for expressing our deep feelings manifested through a mechanical conceptual device. Photography makes real the unreal.
What is happening today in this superficial climate of take any picture no matter what the subject, is that we are reversing our ability to differentiate good images from bad pics. The camera today is used not to make the unreal real but to make the real unreal.
The photograph used to command a respect for truth but now their are billions of so called truths all vying to be posted and exposed to an audience hungry for the trivial. Moments in time should be respected and good image making does this. What is discouraging in this frenzy of shallow breaths is the loss of oxygen feeding the brain. We must as image makers slow down and take the time to look for subjects that inspire us and brings us an awareness of the present moment. We must live in these real moments because that is all there is. If we ignore the present by putting a small device between us and the current reality we are in then we are missing the opportunities that make up a well lived journey.
Everything can be a subject for image creators but that doesn’t mean you exploit the subject for personal gain. Respect for your subject distinguishes the frivolous using of a subject versus the empathetic image creators witness to human events.
It is the internal motifs of the photographer that lead to photographs with meaning and staying power.
This techno collective is pulling us into a strange new world of shallow fabrications and making us ignore everyday moments of interaction with other human beings on a real personal, visual and vocal level. Where we actually look up and meet the eyes of strangers. We are losing touch with ourselves and our natural surroundings.
It is so important in this climate of alienation and anxiety to focus on our individuality and express this through images with substance. To create photographs that dig deeper into the human condition and go beyond this over consumption of physical things. We are treating our time on earth not as a privilege to seek out and do our best in what we love to manifest for others but to dumb down ourselves like cattle and live in the unreal world of ego massage. Don’t consume everything all the time. Learn to produce something of value. If all you do is consume then what benefits are you giving back to your community.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
June 28, 2015
When you begin your approach to a subject you want to photograph do you feel intimidated at first because you seem to be floundering for a visual design to magically appear and compose the scene perfectly for you.
If your looking outside yourself for something to compose the image then your not listening to your inner landscape, your unique perspective on the world. Your time line is yours and yours alone and serendipity can sometimes create an obvious composition that stands out and begs to be created. But most often the composition you choose needs to be worked up to and explored before you can link it up with your inner focused attention.
The downside of consumer generate images, the mass produced nonsense that floods the market on a daily basis, it creates an atmosphere that plainly states that image creation is easy and anyone can create a good image. The problem with this approach is that yes anyone can create a decent image that looks and feels and looks like all the rest of the images uploaded to social media.
We might think we are above the herd instinct but we are still relatively new on this planet and we often, when taking images settle for the ordinary and frivolous instead of tapping into our inner visual design and express something we feel is a truth for us and just may have interest for others. In order to see the details that make the subject intriguing you need to have a sensitivity to your individuality. What interests you and how to create an image that reveals your inner sight.
The superficial image creation going on in today's photo stock market place inhibits the work that is needed in creating images of substance. Are we that shallow to think that all we need to do is point and shoot and the snap shot taken now has significance beyond the mundane existence it came from?
What makes a good stock image. I have given up trying to guess what a photo editor is looking for. As a matter of fact I really never allowed an editor to dictate to me how to create an image for stock photo purposes. Good, thoughtful imagery will always be in demand.
With the over abundance of imagery being taken and the willingness of the herd mentality to give these photographs away for free, the main problem is not the creative images being made but the competing with the crowd sourced imagery that is given away for nothing. If these images actually represented the authentic and natural organic flow of new unique expressions shouldn't they be worth their weight in gold. But they are not unique they are trivial and dumbed down expressions of lives longing for exposure. And they find their image exposure through businesses exploiting the availability of snap shots and feeding the masses with wonderful applause at their willingness to give their snap shots away, as if these copycat images had any true depth of the real human condition.
We hear pundits talking about these new trends of the real and authentic imagery. Of course a business is going to praise the image taker and call these images authentic representations of their buying customers. They are making money on the backs of image takers that don't see the value in their work.
But really all these images represent is an ego thrust outside itself, giving their snap shots away for the thrill of posted exposure on social media. This is not real life, this is strictly business. If you didn't have to pay for your hamburger wouldn't that be a heck of a lot better than forking over a few bucks. Of course it would. The mind is easily duped by praise and vanity.
The real problem today is can artists make enough income to generate a livelihood that is sustainable.
When you begin your approach to a subject you want to photograph do you feel intimidated at first because you seem to be floundering for a visual design to magically appear and compose the scene perfectly for you.
If your looking outside yourself for something to compose the image then your not listening to your inner landscape, your unique perspective on the world. Your time line is yours and yours alone and serendipity can sometimes create an obvious composition that stands out and begs to be created. But most often the composition you choose needs to be worked up to and explored before you can link it up with your inner focused attention.
The downside of consumer generate images, the mass produced nonsense that floods the market on a daily basis, it creates an atmosphere that plainly states that image creation is easy and anyone can create a good image. The problem with this approach is that yes anyone can create a decent image that looks and feels and looks like all the rest of the images uploaded to social media.
We might think we are above the herd instinct but we are still relatively new on this planet and we often, when taking images settle for the ordinary and frivolous instead of tapping into our inner visual design and express something we feel is a truth for us and just may have interest for others. In order to see the details that make the subject intriguing you need to have a sensitivity to your individuality. What interests you and how to create an image that reveals your inner sight.
The superficial image creation going on in today's photo stock market place inhibits the work that is needed in creating images of substance. Are we that shallow to think that all we need to do is point and shoot and the snap shot taken now has significance beyond the mundane existence it came from?
What makes a good stock image. I have given up trying to guess what a photo editor is looking for. As a matter of fact I really never allowed an editor to dictate to me how to create an image for stock photo purposes. Good, thoughtful imagery will always be in demand.
With the over abundance of imagery being taken and the willingness of the herd mentality to give these photographs away for free, the main problem is not the creative images being made but the competing with the crowd sourced imagery that is given away for nothing. If these images actually represented the authentic and natural organic flow of new unique expressions shouldn't they be worth their weight in gold. But they are not unique they are trivial and dumbed down expressions of lives longing for exposure. And they find their image exposure through businesses exploiting the availability of snap shots and feeding the masses with wonderful applause at their willingness to give their snap shots away, as if these copycat images had any true depth of the real human condition.
We hear pundits talking about these new trends of the real and authentic imagery. Of course a business is going to praise the image taker and call these images authentic representations of their buying customers. They are making money on the backs of image takers that don't see the value in their work.
But really all these images represent is an ego thrust outside itself, giving their snap shots away for the thrill of posted exposure on social media. This is not real life, this is strictly business. If you didn't have to pay for your hamburger wouldn't that be a heck of a lot better than forking over a few bucks. Of course it would. The mind is easily duped by praise and vanity.
The real problem today is can artists make enough income to generate a livelihood that is sustainable.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
June 20, 2015
Susan Sontag wrote in the seventies, "From its start, photography implied the capture of the largest possible number of subjects. Painting never had so imperial a scope. The subsequent industrialization of camera technology only carried out a promise inherent in photography from its very beginning: to democratize all experience by translating them into image."
Decades later we now have the digital revolution and with it the explosion of imagery on the Internet.
And this exposes the Pavlov's dog mentality of photography in today's waste land of fragmented realities.
Sontag wrote, "A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it-limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages general feelings of disorientate that are likely to be exacerbated by travel. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter. Unsure of other responses, they take a picture."
We acquire products everyday. Homes full of things that make our lives seem more weighted with memories and objects that represent where we have been and maybe where we want to go in the future. These short-sighted products represent acquired memory, a wishful fulfillment of our desires and our dreams and gives our life a manifested purpose.
Our excess, our obsession with accumulating things is because we live in an age of anxiety (W.H. Auden) and are unable to live with our subjective consciousness, so we live through the external objects of attraction and possession. We seem to never question why we are drawn to certain external stimulus over others.
Images are the hip thing to acquire and quickly become passé as we move constantly toward physical experience on a shallow level.
This superficiality gives us the illusion of stability in our lives but it is an illusion of the present becoming a past experience. We can never be satisfied trying to stop times forward motion.
We are always trying to duplicate a past experience, hold onto it especially if it brought us pleasure. In photography we repeat composition and exposure when we are satisfied that the snap shot taken represents our forced perception (prejudices) on the subject.
We want to posses things. We want to define what something is and not have to think any further on the matter. This drives the proliferation of imagery. We are on constant capture mode, we don't have to think anymore concerning what we are interested in taking pics of because now everything is photogenic. Everything is an expression of my outer facade.
We are a species that imitate behavior. The images being created now represent our surface connection with our memories over our present moments in our own lives. We seek memories over infinite choice.
How scary a new subject can be and also frustrating when you have to interact with your subject, exploring the many choices you need to make in order to create an image worthy of your time. You will have to choose your composition, light, perspective and the most important question, why choose this subject over another. What does this particular subject have that the others don't?
Sometimes you can't answer that question but you just know intuitively that there is an image present and with time and effort it will manifest itself to you.
Are we seeing the end to purposeful image creation, of course not but social media is making good images hard to find.
We herd easily, wanting to be driven along worn paths that end up getting us nowhere near where we want to be. We constantly put barriers up between us and our environment. We settle for a relationship with others through a hand held device, not of intimacy but propaganda.
We fear the world and its burgeoning technology and its complexity, so we look for the easy way to go and the camera now is a comforting action that allows us distance from the subject and gives us a "work to do mentality" to take pictures of and not interact with our subjects. We are becoming reclusive, apart from living in the now and losing touch with our communities.
Stop the constant head down, looking at a small screen. Look up into this world, interact with it on a personal level not through corporate media sites.
Each of us is unique and we will approach our subjects differently. A one size fits all never works in creating good imagery.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
May 24, 2015
Galen Rowell, "The best photographs speak for themselves. Attempts to analyze their meaning invariably detract from the special quality that is beyond words in the first place. The photographs that move me the most propel me into an emotional realm where my experience is no longer verbal."
We live creating memories. These memories are our life’s story, our created truth that we were here on this planet and we lived and we died and the only way to preserve them is through picture taking, writings and visual art. These become the artifacts left behind of me and my time here.
In photography, before social media, these images were in family albums and picture frames hung on hallway walls, a shrine to our living in this time and space and our recognition of the continuity between generations, as new images were put in the albums for our family members to see and appreciate especially on holidays.
What is different today in this explosion of social media sites, is that we don’t have a unified place to see our family history but have individual sites that broadcast our memories not just for family members but for the whole world to see, read and judge.
Our real families are fragmenting, growing apart from each other and now correspond in public view on social sites.
We now have an audience other than family to entertain and show our personal lives to. We also have an audience for our on going personal memories and we get noticed, rewarded, and of course we get sympathy and condolences from strangers on theses media platforms and our immediate families are becoming secondary.
Our private inner world is no longer private for family and close friends. We have given access to our world to everyone. We expose ourselves for all to examine, not only our personal thoughts but of course the images we create. We are not ourselves but living a life as a public spectacle. We are becoming actors looking for attention and are reacting to our budding created lives and not focused on truth of memory. We are not allowing things to happen naturally in the moment but instead forcing things to happen for a larger number of views on social media.
We are living our lives through social media. Our personal fragmented truth is a facade of spectacle and not necessarily true to who we are or who we want to become. Social media is a distraction from living life to it’s fullest.
Intimacy through privacy allows us to connect with our loved ones on a one on one basis.Without this we lose our personal past and the ones we trust.
This tsunami of imagery is overwhelming our senses. We are losing our ability to recognize good meaningful photographs. We don’t have the stamina it seems to study an image and enjoy the stillness and calm reflections and interaction we once had with the subject photographed. All is becoming quick and easy surface reading with no understanding or reflection on what we see. We are herded down a narrow path to what is the next and greatest novelty. Not what connects with our inner landscape, our visual talents that reflect who we are.
Photography is becoming a scrap book of forced events posted on social media to make ourselves look more important than we are. This is a false illusion of who we are as a society.
We have elevated the trivial to a stature way beyond understanding and we are missing intimacy which is necessary for relationships to grow and mature and have meaning and purpose.
We are dumbing down our mental chords, as well as our vocal chords by allowing our lives to be hijacked by media outlets which collect information about us in order to sell things to us (just as our imagery is becoming things to be exploited) when we should be interacting with each other and exploring and creating images with focused purpose.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
May 17, 2015
Ralph Gibson wrote, "The content of many photographs is often centred around an event. To make 'event' photographs the photographer must align himself in place and time with the event. One minute late for the execution and his shot is missed, as it were. I'm not interested in recording great moments in history. For me, the great event is when my awareness has risen to the point of perception, a brief but intense moment. At such times one could photograph almost anything... a corner, or a chair, a detail of something normally insignificant, etc.. I crave this feeling because of its greater clarity. One day it occurred to me that it was no longer a question of how to photograph but rather of what to photograph". Ralph Gibson wrote this in the early seventies.
The words of Ralph Gibson have become universally true. We now live our lives through social media. What to photograph now means indiscriminate shots of every little detail of our personal life. It is, as if we have become personalities in our own little life movie. Our snap shot mantra is, these have to be shown to prove that I am living and enjoying my time on earth. These mundane images validate our existence to others. We need this attention from the social media sites because we have become fragmented in knowing who we are and what we want to become. It is easier to take pictures of your life because it gets sticky to examine yourself and find out what really matters to you.
Life's journey is no longer a deep exploration of our inner world along with our relationship with the outer world. The outer world it seems is where the attention now is focused. It has become a distraction from asking hard questions concerning our life. Better to photograph anything, than to think and focus on anything for over a few second.
Our fascination with decontextualizing the world, taking objects, ourselves included, out of context, to be seen by eager eyes on social media sites only enhances the obsession with the now. Since we are wanting our personality to be seen, we are imitating each other, as if we were stars and all eyes were looking up at us.
When you are connected with your subject and exploring the opportunity to compose an image with purpose then you are creating and making a personal statement. These images will show your personality in an honest and unique way.
Remember that when you are creating images it is not only you coming through in the final image but the subject as well. If it was only you, then we would be back to creating more of the over saturation of me photographs.
Ralph Gibson wrote, "The content of many photographs is often centred around an event. To make 'event' photographs the photographer must align himself in place and time with the event. One minute late for the execution and his shot is missed, as it were. I'm not interested in recording great moments in history. For me, the great event is when my awareness has risen to the point of perception, a brief but intense moment. At such times one could photograph almost anything... a corner, or a chair, a detail of something normally insignificant, etc.. I crave this feeling because of its greater clarity. One day it occurred to me that it was no longer a question of how to photograph but rather of what to photograph". Ralph Gibson wrote this in the early seventies.
The words of Ralph Gibson have become universally true. We now live our lives through social media. What to photograph now means indiscriminate shots of every little detail of our personal life. It is, as if we have become personalities in our own little life movie. Our snap shot mantra is, these have to be shown to prove that I am living and enjoying my time on earth. These mundane images validate our existence to others. We need this attention from the social media sites because we have become fragmented in knowing who we are and what we want to become. It is easier to take pictures of your life because it gets sticky to examine yourself and find out what really matters to you.
Life's journey is no longer a deep exploration of our inner world along with our relationship with the outer world. The outer world it seems is where the attention now is focused. It has become a distraction from asking hard questions concerning our life. Better to photograph anything, than to think and focus on anything for over a few second.
Our fascination with decontextualizing the world, taking objects, ourselves included, out of context, to be seen by eager eyes on social media sites only enhances the obsession with the now. Since we are wanting our personality to be seen, we are imitating each other, as if we were stars and all eyes were looking up at us.
When you are connected with your subject and exploring the opportunity to compose an image with purpose then you are creating and making a personal statement. These images will show your personality in an honest and unique way.
Remember that when you are creating images it is not only you coming through in the final image but the subject as well. If it was only you, then we would be back to creating more of the over saturation of me photographs.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015
The redundancy in image creation is stifling original ideas.
Social media can paralyze your perception of the world and how you interact with it. Creating shallow moments not of insight but of obnoxious self interest.
Freeman Patterson, "A photographer should resist every temptation to codify the principles of visual design or create pictorial formulas, because such attempts will stifle intuition, reduce emotional input, and put technique ahead of expression".
The redundancy in image creation is stifling original ideas.
Take for example the selfie. This mundane snap shot, which belongs in a family album, has now infiltrated the consciousness of our youth. It is a separation from, not an invite to participate in the life environment, we need to create original images. If we are only looking at ourselves in a scene then how can we explore our external subject when we are selfishly becoming an object to ourselves.
You know that the selfie is corrupting our ability to interact with nature when the ad agencies are now imitating this as a way to sell products.
To experience the world on a deeper level we must throw out these stifling stereotypes and open up our minds to seeing the world with fresh eyes. We must be willing to take a new step toward our internal interests and find our individual creative spirit.
Social media can paralyze your perception of the world and how you interact with it. Creating shallow moments not of insight but of obnoxious self interest.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
May 3, 2015
Photography is changing faster than the mind can adapt to the free for all content frenzy with no real structure to find a path back to a cohesive reality we all share in. Reality is being fragmented and destroyed by the ease of snap shot captures and then the ego posting of these images that you hope make you feel that you are alive and participating in a shared reality. But you are being duped by the social media cartels. These snapshots have become emotional cushions to shore up an empty life without meaning.
The moment now is taken out of the real flowing moments of the present. A time line that once had purpose because it gave us a cohesive perception of this shared reality. Is now a helter-skelter escape from time. Everything now happens at once and at hyper speed.
We have become the objects in our life to take snap shots of. The visual snapshot has become the source of our fulfillment. Experiencing nature first hand is forgotten, replaced by the obsession to document every second of our life through a mechanical device.
The picture now stands for our experience not words describing our experience to a friend. Our vocabulary is diminishing as we rely more and more on the quick pic to be the only representation of that moment for us. It is easy and cheap now to indulge ego, that all to common stride toward banal self indulgence.
We are becoming the Look At Me personalities, actors in our own lives. Not authentic people but a series of posted snap shots of what we think others will like.
Good photography is focusing your intensity on the subject not on yourself. I am not the physical subject of my photographs. My feelings and personality show through when making images. That is how I connect with my subject. The camera is a conduit to a deeper reality. Intense focus on your relationship with your subject is necessary in order to create an image with depth and visual understanding. When you see through focused attention your true subject revealed you begin to see the undercurrents of your life intersecting with your life's theme.
There is a purpose I seek in choosing this subject over another. And as you dig deeper in the environment to select visual elements to represent your inner feeling you begin to loose track of time.
You are now fully involved using your chosen talents in the present moment not reflecting on yourself and then onto the subject. But one with the subject you are creating. It is a detective story of finding the scattered pieces of visually exciting elements of the scene and using your growing confidence in your abilities and putting the image puzzle together and creating an image worthy of other's attention.
Photography is changing faster than the mind can adapt to the free for all content frenzy with no real structure to find a path back to a cohesive reality we all share in. Reality is being fragmented and destroyed by the ease of snap shot captures and then the ego posting of these images that you hope make you feel that you are alive and participating in a shared reality. But you are being duped by the social media cartels. These snapshots have become emotional cushions to shore up an empty life without meaning.
The moment now is taken out of the real flowing moments of the present. A time line that once had purpose because it gave us a cohesive perception of this shared reality. Is now a helter-skelter escape from time. Everything now happens at once and at hyper speed.
We have become the objects in our life to take snap shots of. The visual snapshot has become the source of our fulfillment. Experiencing nature first hand is forgotten, replaced by the obsession to document every second of our life through a mechanical device.
The picture now stands for our experience not words describing our experience to a friend. Our vocabulary is diminishing as we rely more and more on the quick pic to be the only representation of that moment for us. It is easy and cheap now to indulge ego, that all to common stride toward banal self indulgence.
We are becoming the Look At Me personalities, actors in our own lives. Not authentic people but a series of posted snap shots of what we think others will like.
Erich Kahler, "What has happened is not so much a greater readiness, or capacity for understanding on the part of the public, but a radical transformations of art as such, an approximation of avant-garde work to the level of daily experience: our fragmented existence and its patent discordance's, the prevalence of life machinery over life itself, and hence its increasing mechanization."
There is a purpose I seek in choosing this subject over another. And as you dig deeper in the environment to select visual elements to represent your inner feeling you begin to loose track of time.
You are now fully involved using your chosen talents in the present moment not reflecting on yourself and then onto the subject. But one with the subject you are creating. It is a detective story of finding the scattered pieces of visually exciting elements of the scene and using your growing confidence in your abilities and putting the image puzzle together and creating an image worthy of other's attention.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
April 16, 2015
January 13, 2017
Burt Uzzle wrote, "Work gains in depth and importance as more and more aspects of life experiences and eloquence are apparent. Slavish, ill-proportioned devotion to limited offerings and compensating distortions suggest limited capacities and formula work. Growth and depth are required on life's zig-zag course as we take visceral risks and extend ourselves within the medium. We reach out."
Each of us has an individual talent no one else has. When we acknowledge it and develop this talent we begin the journey of our inner discovery. When we are present in the moment and accomplishing through purposeful effort our skill we enter a unique state of mind.
We have all at one time or another tapped into our unique genius and found that time was not an external force imposed upon us but rather we were separate, outside time's limits and our moments of doing what we enjoyed expressing seemed infinite. Time wasn't necessary for us to organize our lives. We didn't have the constant pressure to reflect on our actions to see if we were measuring up to external standards.
Time does not have to be linear, trapping us with narrow expectations, limiting our ability to open up and express our stories. When we are present in the moment, we then find outside ourselves, subjects worth our attention.
We must have the courage to see differently. Accept feelings more than words. Words confine us to sterile boxes of mundane repetition. Learn to see around corners not in a straight line. Don't be directed by the word police telling you what to feel and how to feel.
Become inquisitive, we know very little about the undercurrents in our lives dictating our thoughts and reactions to events and lessening our ability to follow our own vision of how we want to see and create photographs in this world.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
April 4, 2014
Arnold Newman when discussing his portraits wrote, "I am convinced that any photographic attempt to show the complete man is nonsense, to an extent. We can only show, as best we can, what the outer man reveals; the inner man is seldom revealed to anyone, sometimes not even to the man himself."
I think the same can be said of all images created whether they are of people, a still life, scenic, documentary, etc...
We look at a two dimensional photograph of a person as if this represents reality. When it actually is an image marker of the split second of exposure that symbolizes the ego of the subject or the ego of the photographer.
What we seem to get caught up in when looking at the world is the abstract concepts of things, the symbols they represent not the thing itself. When we look for the background details of a subject only then do we begin to approach the subject honestly. We begin to see the undercurrents of subject impressionism. That is the subjects willingness to be discovered on a deeper level through your intuition, timing and interaction. And the subjects willingness to give more of themselves to you.
Arnold Newman when discussing his portraits wrote, "I am convinced that any photographic attempt to show the complete man is nonsense, to an extent. We can only show, as best we can, what the outer man reveals; the inner man is seldom revealed to anyone, sometimes not even to the man himself."
I think the same can be said of all images created whether they are of people, a still life, scenic, documentary, etc...
We look at a two dimensional photograph of a person as if this represents reality. When it actually is an image marker of the split second of exposure that symbolizes the ego of the subject or the ego of the photographer.
What we seem to get caught up in when looking at the world is the abstract concepts of things, the symbols they represent not the thing itself. When we look for the background details of a subject only then do we begin to approach the subject honestly. We begin to see the undercurrents of subject impressionism. That is the subjects willingness to be discovered on a deeper level through your intuition, timing and interaction. And the subjects willingness to give more of themselves to you.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
March 29, 2015
It seems in this ever competitive photo market place success wins happiness and failure an overwhelming feeling of defeat. This belief that failure is an ending is based on the illusions of success. Success is exploitative, it creates illusions of accomplishments but these achievements are only for an external gratification. We all can look successful but an appearance like authenticity is an illusion. With each success our ego grows more narrowly focused and our willingness to explore other avenues of interest brings a risk of failure, so we stick to our prideful script and take photos of similar subjects to keep the success train rolling.
Failure is not something to be afraid of but to be embraced. If you fail you have a template to look at and find out what happened. I have always taken images that weren't quite finished and ready for publication. Something was missing in the composition and the quality of light that made the subject lack significance. It was my inexperience and youthful know it all attitude that made me ignore the potential of the subject in front of me and made me leap toward the lure of next greatest image just over the horizon.
When I edit some of my older slides for scanning, I find some of these image failures were actually trail markers I wasn't paying attention to and I ended up on dead end paths that did not inspire me at all. There was something I wasn't connecting with in these earlier scenes but still deep down I must of had an intuition, a gut feeling that this subject needed to be expressed.
You can chase success but success is actually chasing you, making you see only what it wants you to see and you are missing the subjects that are under your radar just waiting to be discovered. And these ignored subjects are actually the ones that could inspire your life and others, if only you could wake up and see them.
It seems in this ever competitive photo market place success wins happiness and failure an overwhelming feeling of defeat. This belief that failure is an ending is based on the illusions of success. Success is exploitative, it creates illusions of accomplishments but these achievements are only for an external gratification. We all can look successful but an appearance like authenticity is an illusion. With each success our ego grows more narrowly focused and our willingness to explore other avenues of interest brings a risk of failure, so we stick to our prideful script and take photos of similar subjects to keep the success train rolling.
Failure is not something to be afraid of but to be embraced. If you fail you have a template to look at and find out what happened. I have always taken images that weren't quite finished and ready for publication. Something was missing in the composition and the quality of light that made the subject lack significance. It was my inexperience and youthful know it all attitude that made me ignore the potential of the subject in front of me and made me leap toward the lure of next greatest image just over the horizon.
When I edit some of my older slides for scanning, I find some of these image failures were actually trail markers I wasn't paying attention to and I ended up on dead end paths that did not inspire me at all. There was something I wasn't connecting with in these earlier scenes but still deep down I must of had an intuition, a gut feeling that this subject needed to be expressed.
You can chase success but success is actually chasing you, making you see only what it wants you to see and you are missing the subjects that are under your radar just waiting to be discovered. And these ignored subjects are actually the ones that could inspire your life and others, if only you could wake up and see them.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
March 20, 2015
I need to go beyond my redundant habits in shooting the same old subjects over and over again. I need to expand my horizons by taking on subjects that are new, challenging and inspirational.
For one thing by doing the same camera set up over and over again my interest in the subject is lessened. I become disinterested in the subject and my images will reflect my bored mood.
Good photography is finding the note in your subject and playing your music along side it, using the elements of composition to discover new chords in the image being created that can move and inspire.
You need to build a composition that expresses not only your subject but your inner design which is constructed through your interaction with your subject. Start exploring deeper to find that composition that expresses your subject truthfully and expresses through your photographic character your connection with your subject.
Finding this new muse and expressing more by finding other chords and building your composition you create a new music, a new image, an instrumental, that gives you motivation but also confidence in your growing awareness of what you like to express in your photographs and gives the listener/viewer to those practiced chords an appreciation of your effort to explore new territories.
I need to go beyond my redundant habits in shooting the same old subjects over and over again. I need to expand my horizons by taking on subjects that are new, challenging and inspirational.
For one thing by doing the same camera set up over and over again my interest in the subject is lessened. I become disinterested in the subject and my images will reflect my bored mood.
Good photography is finding the note in your subject and playing your music along side it, using the elements of composition to discover new chords in the image being created that can move and inspire.
You need to build a composition that expresses not only your subject but your inner design which is constructed through your interaction with your subject. Start exploring deeper to find that composition that expresses your subject truthfully and expresses through your photographic character your connection with your subject.
Finding this new muse and expressing more by finding other chords and building your composition you create a new music, a new image, an instrumental, that gives you motivation but also confidence in your growing awareness of what you like to express in your photographs and gives the listener/viewer to those practiced chords an appreciation of your effort to explore new territories.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
February 16, 2015
Imagination, Fantasy, Dream practice, Meditation... all of these bring forth the fundamental gift all humans have and that is the desire in living life to transcend this sticky reality we all share. Sometimes we get caught up with distractions that move us away from a purposeful life and into a herd mentality of imitation. The art culture wakes us up to this wonderful world of personal expression.
We are becoming distracted by the shallow social media entertainment industry that doesn't have at its core inspiration but moves us like children to a candy store of fragmented scrap book imagery.
These images were never meant to be posted relentlessly on the web. Their authenticity is with family members that enjoy getting together during the holiday season and invariably these photo albums would come out to be reminisced about with family friends and relatives.
We are less inclined to appreciate the great images if we are dumbed down into thinking an instant thoughtless snap shot can equal the intensity of a studied subject through a connected photographer with his subject.
The art of photography is a gift to the world, a manifestation of the artists intent, to stimulate the viewer into thinking about this world in a deeper way. The great images of the past and the great images being created today are being overwhelmed by the banal content being supplied to the web. Everyone is an artist. And the more we see of this mediocre everyday snap shots we miss the important subjects being created that can give us a deeper understanding of our lives and our future. But just maybe that is the whole purpose of the social media websites to distract us into becoming more look alike nondescript personalities, all thinking in shallow pools of a common mediocrity. The more mindless information we are exposed to the less we know. Images that have a purpose need to be looked at more than a few seconds. They need to be studied and thought about. We are not image jumpers, we are focused eyes on works of art.
Separation now is part of the image creation. We don’t experience reality we take pictures of it and then post our results as we would put money into a parking meter. With only a few seconds of viewing time allowed.
Ernst Haas wrote, "You will have to decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create. Reports of facts, essays, poems-you want to speak or to sing? There are almost too many possibilities. Photography is in direct proportion with our time: multiple, faster, instant. Because it is so easy it will be difficult. Since we can photograph almost anything we are again at a new beginning. There is a photographic explosion in the world. Its the glamour profession. Everybody takes pictures, everybody can copy trends or styles... Only a vision-that is what one must have." This quote by Ernst Hass was from the book 'World Photography' edited by Bryn Campbell, published in 1981.
In creating meaningful imagery all you need is complexity of thoughts reduced to light play on your camera sensor.
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