Postcards from the Creative Journey

853 “Lifetime Projects”

Every once in a while I look back to see what I’ve done. I tend to photograph on a “current time” basis and don’t look back to see what we’ve done in the past. If we take the time to look at those old image files, or if you are really old, you can hold those old glassine enveloped film negatives up to the light just to see what’s there. When you do that, there are several outcomes.

You can look at those old images and try to answer the question, “What the hell did you think you were doing when you made that image?”

You can see the beginning of some of your current work. There’s a line between where you were and where you are now.

You can identify themes or projects that you have subconsciously been creating over the past. These “stealth projects” fall into the category of Lifetime Projects. These are themes or subjects you have visited over your life and have been a constant fascination to you.

I have several of these lifetime projects. Doors, for some reason, fascinate me. I love a good door photograph. Closely related to the Door projects are facades and street scenes. Not street photography, but photographs of streets. I love interior landscapes, or room photography. The places where people live are interesting to me, and if there is great window light providing illumination, then I am in seventh heaven.

Take a stroll back into your catalogs or file folders and see if you can find yourself a lifetime project.

852 365 - A Boy’s Song – Books from Fairview School, First Published 11/15/2015

During this summer’s photo safari to Yosemite National Park, Brooks Jensen and I were discussing whether the Masters of West Coast Photography had made any memorable photographs of Lake Tenaya On a recent trip to my Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library I spent some time with their photographic book collection looking for an Edward Weston photograph of Tenaya Lake. I found the photograph as well as an Ansel Adams photograph of Weston photographing at Tenaya Lake in the Aperture book, “The Flame of Recognition.”

Walking out of the Library this thought struck me. The book I held in 2015 was the same book I read and re-read in 1972. That copy of “The Flame of Recognition” was the exact same book that inspired me to consider photography as an art. So much of our current digital life is ephemeral and disposable and the catalyst that began my life-long affair with photography was still on the library shelf. Has this slim volume ever inspired another person to make a life-long commitment to photography? I don’t know, but I bet that somehow that little book does.

851 Consuming versus Creating

When it comes to living on the interwebs there are two basic types of people. There are Creators and Consumers. We fill both roles during our virtual lives. Both roles are necessary because without content there can be no consumption and without consumers where is the motivation to create? The motivation to create for real creators is insatiable. For myself, there is no way I cannot live without creating something. Be it creating my monthly journal, these blog posts, my web site or fermenting a batch of beer. (Well, three out of four are online.) The need to create something and share the creation with people is the reason we create.

850 Tomorrow Might Be The Day You Make Your Best Photograph First Published 9/18/2016

Noel Gallagher (formerly with the band Oasis) was interviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine. He was asked the question, “Is songwriting still as fun for you as when you started out?”

He replied, “Oh, yeah. I still think tomorrow might be the day that I write the greatest song of all time. It's like going fishing. The guitar is your fishing rod, and if I'm not fishing for that song, f***ing Bono will get it, and if he's not, Chris Martin will. And f*** those two guys, because they've got enough. We're all fishing in the same river, and it's cutthroat, baby.”

In less colorful language, the thought is clear. I often say, “I can’t wait to see what I do next,” because if you are an artist, you have to be constantly looking forward to creating. As an artist, you really can’t live in the past because all your new art is going to be made in your future. Don’t waste your time reliving past successes, practice your art every day or others will create “your” art instead of you.

849 Remains of the Past

I am intrigued by what might be called Remains of the Past. I think that’s a polite name for something that is way past its prime, no longer used, devoid of human occupation or just something old that is no longer used. Impolitely, one might say I enjoy photographing junk, old machines, and abandoned buildings. There is something about objects that are from a different time and place. I think these objects and scenes provide us a key to why we are what we are today. We can see what earlier generations experienced and what made them the way they were. From there, we can see how we got to where we are today. It’s this connection that puts us in the timeline of history.

848 There Is No Perfection In Addition; More From Harvey Penick. First Published 12/30/2018

Another thought from Mr. Penick that has stayed with me for decades. It’s the title; perfection is achieved by subtraction, not addition. Removing the superfluous is the route to perfection. I guess in the most elemental form, a stone sculptor personifies this. Stone is removed until the sculpture is revealed. Haiku uses only seventeen syllables. There is no room for clutter there, too. Only the essential words to convey the poet’s message.

So the same should be for a photograph. Simple is always better. Visual clutter gets in the way of the message you are sending. Strive for simplicity in composition, restraint in editing and brevity in writing.

847 Can There Be One “Best” Image?

I used to think no matter how many photographs you make, only one is the best. I imagine that was true when you were only looking at one use for an image, that is, hanging it on the wall all by itself. But I’ve been persuaded to give up my absolutist position and look at the concept of “best” as being quite a bit more flexible.

I was persuaded to change my opinion because projects are my final artwork rather than a single image. This means that when creating my projects, I have several criteria to determine if the image is the best.

Content is king and what the content of the image depends on where and how it is being used. A color version might fit into one project and be exactly what is needed. That same image might be used in another project as a black and white image. An “average” image might not make it on its own but as a transitional image it might be exactly what is needed in a particular project.

My current thoughts are that the merit of an image is determined by how well it fits into a project, not as a standalone piece of art.

846 Concentrating or Thinking? First Published 12/23/2018

When I go out to photograph there is no other motivation than to capture the beauty that appears before me. There is incredible joy and happiness that comes from finding something beautiful and capturing its image with my camera.

There is no deep, thoughtful preparation and mystical revelation in this act. It is purely satisfaction of the desire to be in the presence of and record my reaction to this situation.

There is no intellectual rigor in this activity. In fact, nothing could be further from that. It is strictly instinctual, moving around, setting the edges of the photograph and making sure I don’t “muck it up.”

A long time ago I read Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book of Golf Instruction. A sage bit of advice from Harvey was that while on the golf course, “concentration is good, thinking is disastrous.” The same goes for photography. Think about what you want to do before you pick up the camera, once you pick up the camera, concentrate on what is in front of you.

845 Cloudscapes

As a landscape photographer I rejoice in the sky full of big puffy clouds. It doesn't matter (well, almost) what occupies the foreground, because the star of the show are those great clouds. Thus, the title of this post. If the land is not a key component of the image, then the Clouds dominate the composition and that is the whole photograph. Landscape photography required the weather knowledge, the ability to move distances to get to the right weather and a certain amount of luck to get those great clouds in your photograph.

Well, Adobe has made getting those clouds to behave and obey your orders a whole bunch easier. With the sky replacement tool, you can slip any clouds you want into your own photographs. They can be stock clouds supplied by Adobe or you can get one of those lucky days and “stock up” on cloudscapes to use on some unsuspecting foreground. Ah, the wonders of technology.

While I am sure other curmudgeonly photographers will (again) bemoan the death of photography as we know it, it is worth noting this practice has been going on since the inception of our art.

In the days of blue sensitive emulsions, landscape photographers made two images of a scene. One plate was exposed for the blue sky and had a woefully underexposed foreground. The second plate was exposed for the foreground and had a completely blasted out sky. Combination printing of the two plates made a complete photograph. Good cloud negatives were sold or traded among photographers who had no qualms about using someone else's sky in their photograph.

Combination printing has been around for a long time. Adobe has now made it impossibly easy. I wait with trepidation to see how badly this new tool will be abused.

844 - Which Way to Look? First Published 7/10/2011

I am a forward-looking person. Past work is history. It may or may not be relevant to my current project. I also don’t like to go back and look at old projects. Once I do that, I will pick them apart and judge them by my current standards. I wind up making myself feel like a fraud for passing off less than stellar work. They were the best I had at the time, but as I grow as an artist, fewer and fewer of my old photographs pass muster when I look at them now. My old photos do not interest me.

I want to get on to the next photograph, the next project, the next portfolio and make it technically better and emotionally deeper than the last one. It’s the quest to do something new, to push your creative self to make something better. It’s having the courage to let go of the last good photograph and move on to the next challenge.

I can’t wait to see what I do next.

843 Success as An Impediment To Creativity

Online judging of images employs the artistic equivalent of the Roman Emperor giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to a Gladiator. We are accepted or rejected. Yes or No. Accept or Reject. Right or Wrong. There is no middle ground, no “Well it was really good except for…,” or “ that could be improved if the next time you were in that situation you could…” helpful critiques that could be great help to the photographer.

The critique is a binary system and not a helpful method for the evaluation of images.

Relying on this style of feedback on photographic image and style your creativity is stifled in two ways. First, you do not know the level of photographic knowledge and competence of the people rating your work. They could be completely misguided and ignorant of the precepts of good photography. In the worst case, you could be getting reviews from people who cannot tell you what a good image looks like. Secondly, chasing those “thumbs up ratings” to achieve  “success,”  the temptation is to photograph to meet popular expectations. When crowd pleasing is the measure of success, the temptation is to play to that audience and not explore more creative approaches to your images.

842 - Craft and Art, First Published 6/3/2011

Yes, this is a homage.

A friend of mine saw a tribute (cover) band a while back. He said they were very good at impersonating the real band. They had the playlist in the right order, hit all the notes and did the moves. But they didn’t do it first. That to me is the separation between art and craft. It’s the ability to use the craft to convey your thoughts or feelings about a subject. Playing someone else’s song note for note is not high art, but high craft. These guys had the skill, craft and technical proficiency, to reproduce tone for tone other’s original work. Tone for tone, eh? That’s my cue translate this into photography speak.

We have tribute photographers, too. All of us, at certain phases of our lives can’t go by a photogenic green pepper (me, too!), or a torn poster on a wall or just drive on through the Wawona Tunnel in Yosemite without pulling out a camera and making a photograph. We all make or remake our version of the classic images. The suggestion (again) is, if you are not the first, do it better, or do it differently to let us (your audience) know either the subject or yourself better. When you look in your viewfinder or ground glass and see a photograph that you have already seen before, then please don’t waste either your time or our time on that image.

Craft is important. But it is a tool in service of your art. You can duplicate the masters if you choose. We all do, just remember, it’s a stop along the way to developing your own art.

It doesn’t take much effort to make a photograph. It takes a lot of effort to make a really good photograph.