Postcards from the Creative Journey

1183 No Immediate Use

Selecting images for an image suite or a project requires a larger number of images to choose from. When I look at the number of images that I don’t use, I have to keep reminding myself that if I have no immediate use for an image, that does not mean there will never be a use for that image in some image suite, project or maybe even a book.

The thought is, that you do have to continually review your images to see if there is a need for the images that didn't make it into a project the first time around. 

 

1182 What Do You Do Until Then? First Published 5/28/2017

I downloaded “Wear Good Shoes: Advice from Magnum Photographers” and found it to be an inspiring collection of thoughts from some of the world’s best photojournalists. The great part about this document was that it really never mentioned anything technical about photography. (Well, except for the advice about shoes, I guess.) If I had to sum it up in just a few words the essence of the advice was to cultivate a broad interest in the arts and follow your passion for photography by photographing every day.

Lots of people say do what you love and follow your passion. What if what you love doesn’t pay enough for your food, clothing and shelter? While I do love making photographs, for most of my life I had to provide for my wife and two daughters who really, really wanted to live indoors, wear shoes and eat regularly. My photographs weren’t going to make that happen.

I made my photographic life part of the life I needed to live to support my family.

1181 The Paradox of Contemporary Photography

It took a long time to create analog photographs. In order to assure our work was long-lived we developed our negatives and our prints to exacting archival standards. That most of these images should have been immediately forgotten was a point we never thought about. Archival, permanence and our legacy were important. We wanted our photographs to last forever.

Digital images for the web are created immediately and processed quickly, if not done immediately by your camera before you can upload the file to your social media account. We have achieved image immortality because the internet never forgets. You may go back and look at a blog post from 2010 and everything is (still) there.

Today’s photographs are created immediately and then immediately forgotten because the half life of an image on the internet is a day or two. The images might be forgettable to people, but remembered by the internet forever.

1180 The Devil in the Details First published 12/6/2020

Some folks have taken the efficiency of digital editing and turned it on its head. Originally designed to make photographic editing quick, effective and incredibly precise, some are using digital editing to postpone completion of images. Take the incredibly precise and numerous digital editing tools available in Photoshop. I have seen explanations of digital editing techniques used on one digital file going through multiple processing steps with mind numbing details and sweating out the details at the pixel level.

Why?

Viewers can’t see the details at that level, much less care about the time and effort spent in making the image “just so.” The only people that will know about it are people the photographer tells about it. Maybe they will care about the technical details in kind of a technical one-upmanship way.

But what this fuss and bother about inconsequential (invisible?) details does is postpone the completion of an image. So finish the image and move on to the next image.

1179 Feet of Clay

It’s always a bit disheartening when you find out details about your hero’s life. We experience it all the time because we often mistakenly assign our values to a person we admire. If we like them, or what they do, they should be like us, right? It is disappointing to find out you’re wrong.

When I began photography while in college the pre-eminent student photographer was all over campus with his Hasselblad, photographing for the paper, the yearbook and anyone else that needed on-campus photographs. My fellow photography students were impressed because "he had a ‘blad, man." (OK, for you younger readers, beginners used 35mm while the “pros” carried the medium format Hasselblad.)

I happened to run into him decades later and asked him how his photography was going. He replied that he sold all his gear right after graduation and got a job.

“What about photography?” I asked. His reply was, “Oh, I just used it to meet girls.”

I don’t know whether my disappointment occurred because his commitment to photography wasn’t long term, or I never thought of using my camera to meet girls.

The pantheon of former heroes and inspirational personalities continues to grow.

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Here's what I was photographing in college, instead of using my camera to meet girls. 

1178 On Being a “Non Revenue Photographer” First Published 12/27/2020

I am a “Non-Revenue Photographer” because I do not generate income from my photographic skills. If I spend money on things photographic it’s because I think it will help me make better images or present them to a larger audience. This causes me to think twice (at least) about investing in my photographic world. Adding equipment, software, or something else to help me create art does require some self-examination and justification prior to purchase.

On the other hand, I don’t have to work diligently to make the purchase “pay off” by creating income from photography.

1177 Cocoon Of Calm

My favorite photographic time is when I am surrounded by a cocoon of calm. It’s the time when you sink into the (or maybe elevate to) surroundings and become part of the space you are photographing. This happens just around you. Your surroundings may be chaotic, noisy, and disorganized, but you are in the middle of this with your camera and your cocoon of calm that refuses to participate in the disorganized mess around you. You may also be way out in the boondocks photographing the landscape, but that cocoon of calm will find you and embrace you with the serenity you need to make great photographs.

I wish there was an easy way to find this cocoon and bring it with me whenever I head out into the world with my camera.

1176 On being Photographic, First Published 7/24/2011

There is a gap between aspiration and performance that drives some of us to do better in a chosen activity. The key to becoming skilled in any creative process is not to read about it, but to practice the skills you want to do. Athletes train according to a schedule. Authors write every day. Musicians play music every day. Painters paint every day. How often do you photograph?

Well, umm, err, ah, well…

No, I would wager that not all of us pull the camera out every day and crack off a couple of hundred exposures unless we are professional photojournalists. If it’s just not possible to make photographs every day with your camera, you should be able to exercise your vision on a daily basis. If you can’t photograph daily, can you look for photographs daily? As you drive by that cool old house on your way to work have you thought about what type of photograph you could make when the light was right and you had your camera? Do you change your position when talking to people so you can see them against a pleasing background? Do you critique pictures you see in books, magazines or on the internet?

Until you can get you, your camera, that cool old house and the right light in one spot together and be a photographer, then be photographic instead.

1175 Are You Advancing Your Art, Or Your Skills?

Try not to confuse the two. It is much easier to advance your skills. All it takes is a YouTube video or two, or maybe a quick download of a plug-in that promises to unleash your creativity. Skills are mechanical, techniques, tools, things you use to make or process something. Advancing your art is something else altogether. It requires introspection, thought, planning, and deciding which skills are needed to accomplish your vision. It is a far more time-consuming process than watching a YouTube video or two.

"To be interested solely in technique would be a very superficial thing to me." – Andrew  Wyeth

1174 Writing the Artists Statement (Part 3 of 3), First Published 4/1/2018

Pay attention to the critique. Read the comments and figure out how to edit your writing so it makes sense. If you have to rewrite everything because there is no connection between your photographs and your writing accept the critique. You rewrite; every word if necessary. It’s part of the process of creating the statement. After all, as an artist we sign up for critique, failure and rejection as part of creating our art.

With these suggestions you will have to edit, revise, cut, add, clarify or maybe even start all over again. My editing process has its own hierarchy. At first, I edit paragraphs, then I edit sentences. When I get down to the point where I am sweating over words, I know I am nearly ready.

When you think it’s ready, let the document rest for a bit. After the statement has rested, go over it one more time and re-submit your version of the final document to your friend for review. That last cycle is to cover any errors that make have crept into the last revision.

Once you get the statement back, proofread. Do not rely on software for this task. I had a funny/embarrassing experience once and learned my lesson. After the proofreading, it’s ready to be included in your project.

That’s all there is to it, he says with a sly grin. Didn’t say it would be easy, didn’t say it would be quick, but this is generally the route my statement writing takes. You might try this path and make it fit your own process.

Post Script

Usually I have to struggle with words to get a statement to make sense with the selected images. Sometimes, your statement can be written in fifteen minutes if your thoughts, words and images come together quickly. It’s only happened to me one time. The project is called the Gift of Light. No one was more surprised than me to have the whole project (start to finish, pictures and text) completed in an hour.

1173 Good at the Time

The level of acceptably good photographs is quite fluid. Specifically, going back into the Lipka archives to come up with image suites for the More Memories than Dreams (MMTD) Project, I am displaying images that were good when I made them. Some folks would be embarrassed to show them, but I am not. The images I am sharing were good then, but maybe not as good as images I would make today.

I’m OK with this because retrospective projects are supposed to show artistic growth and improvement in technical as well as aesthetic realms.

1172 Writing the Artists Statement (Part 2 of 3), First Published 3/25/2018

Whiskey, wine, and your writing are similar in that they do better after aging. Letting your words rest for a week might quite possibly cause improvement. I’m not sure why it happens, but it is a mystery I have encountered again and again.

Take another look at what you have created and try to find connections among the random thoughts. What makes sense? Strive to assemble some coherent themes and thoughts from what you have written about the experience and significance of the photographs. Keep thinking and writing. If you discover new and better ideas write them down. Don’t forget to use those lines to separate the new and old ideas.

Begin organizing the thoughts into a story about the photographs. The goal of your story will be to lead the viewers up to the edge of the photograph. Then, the viewers can fall into the photographic experience you created. This is what you want to share with your viewers. Write this down. It does not have to be long, expressive or wonderful. What it has to be is complete. You can’t edit anything if it isn’t complete. Call it the first draft.

Ignore the first draft for a week and hope it mysteriously improves with age.

After ignoring the first draft for a week, you may commence revisions to create drafts two through six. It is quite permissible to have days pass between drafts. Send draft six to a very good friend along with the photographs. This is a very important part of creating an Artist’s statement; selection of a person that can look at your photographs and your words and tell you honestly when you have missed the mark. It’s even better if they can tell you how far you have missed and why you missed the mark. You have reached nirvana when they can make suggestions to improve the statement.

What to do with this critique is important. When you get the critique back, read it. Think about it and let it set for a week to improve while your bruised ego gets better.