Postcards from the Creative Journey

The Importance of “Because”

Piano and Music, Ansorge Hotel, Curlew, Washington

“I really like your photograph.” is possibly the worst critique that you can give a fellow photographer about one of their images. You can improve your critique if when you tell the person why do or don’t like their photograph. The first sentence should be, “I like your photograph because…” then, follow the “because” with some defensible reasons why you really like the photograph. If you really want to help the photographer you can opine on the compositional and technical merits of the image because that’s important. But what’s more important is to talk about your emotional response to the image and how it makes you feel and what memories the image stirred up in your mind. We make our photographs to connect with our viewers. Helping other photographers learn how to do that is the desired outcome of any critique.

An Artist Needs a Lot of Room

 

Porch, Skjermo School, Divide County, North Dakota

One of the things about being an artist is this: you need to have a lot of room to store your “stuff.” It used to be that if you had a darkroom, then you had a very convenient place to store your photographic paraphernalia as well as a work place. Now, if you have a completely digital work flow (Now wait – I used to have a darkroom and now I have a “workflow.” Is that progress?) you don’t have as much “stuff” to make your photographs. With a digital workflow I am more prolific and can create a lot more art. While creating more art is better, what to do with the increased artistic output?

If you produce art (a) people will give you money to own your artwork. (b) You will give some away to dear friends and family members. (c) You can throw away the art you don’t like. Or (d) you will hang on to the work you have created. As you get older, or you produce more work, you will need more room to store what work you want to keep. If you are very conscientious, you will have a system to keep track of all the work you have finished as well as what you are working on and all the images you have made. Then when you have end of career potlatch, a la Brett Weston, you will know what you have destroyed.

Most folks don’t think about this part of creating their art until after they created the work. I actually had the forethought to consider this when I was preparing for the Light on China show. When I bought the mat board, I also purchased the drop front storage boxes for the prints after the show. Now, all I have to do is find some room around the house to store the boxes.

Seeing Is Believing

Facade, from "Inside the Temple Walls"

Baotou, Inner Mongolia, PRC

When the gallery hangs your photographs on the wall, you pretty much have to show up at the opening night reception. My wife and I made the short trip to the Greenhill Center for North Carolina Arts in Greensboro on Friday for the opening. Greenhill is a very nice facility, and the show was expertly hung, the prints were grouped nicely and shown well.

This is the first time I had seen all my photographs together. When you’re making the photographs you aren’t really aware of the scale of the effort. It is one thing to see your photographs at home on the computer screen and then stacked up in the living room. It’s quite another thing to see them in a big gallery all at once. It’s kind of dissociative event. You look at the photographs and say, “Wow. Those are cool.” Then you remember you made them. I celebrated the success, went back to the gallery the next morning and made some photographs of the exhibit and came home.

Time to start the next project.

Click on over to my web site and look for the Light on China link to see the folios and pictures of the exhibit.

Here are a few photographs of what portion of the show looked like.

 

 

 

“Being Photographic”

Blacksmith Shop, Pioneer Village,

Crosby, North Dakota

The thing about photography is that you can approach it from many different points and enjoy many different aspects of photography. You can be an active photographer using a camera for many different things: self-expression, story-telling, journalism, or the perfect excuse to take travels to many different locations.

Then there are the folks that enjoy “being photographic.” Among the many different types of “photographic” people are those that enjoy going to photographic exhibits because they like cheese cubes, box wine and hobnobbing with the local arts crowd. Or, they collect photographs to keep in a fire proof safe, or to hang on their walls. Some folks collect cameras, tripods, old chemical cans and various other forms of photographic ephemera. Other folks collect books of photographs, books of photographs on a specific subject, or books of pictures of cameras.

I write this blog, sharing my thoughts about photography because I can’t get myself behind a camera and produce photographs as often as I would like. So, I have this outlet to make sure that I keep thinking about photographs, what they mean and the next photographic project I need to do. Until I conjure up some free time to complete my latest photographic project, I can write these blog posts and keep on “being photographic” when I can’t photograph.

Here’s your shot at being photographic for next weekend. My photographs are included in the exhibition, “Light on China” at the GreenHill Center for North Carolina Arts in Greensboro, NC. The show opens on July 11, 2014 and will be hung until September 6, 2014. I will be at the opening July 11 from 6:30 PM until closing. If you’re in Greensboro this Friday evening, please stop by. Here’s a link for more information on the show.