Alec Soth, Robert Frank and Allen Ginsberg about projects, and not overthinking

[robert blu]

A couple of weeks ago I started this thread about the way we photograph, our preferences for projects or random photos and there have been many interesting contributions.
Recently I found this YouTube video in which Alec Soth tell us his view about this point speaking of his latest book and how it started with an idea about Abraham Lincoln, idea which was almost soon abandoned to become something different.

For the friends who have not the time to watch all the 45 minutes of the video I just report a couple of interesting points.

In the beginning at 2.45 he says "the project is about that quality of letting go and just being a photographer and it's about teaching myself to be a beginner photographer"

To have a plan, a structure and accept the deviations incorporating them in the plan seems me an interesting idea. Personally I should work on this because when I photograph for a project and see something different but interesting of course I photograph it but I keep it for the archive or for different projects. The idea to incorporate in the originallly planned structure has not been (yet) considered by me.

Additionally at around 26.45 Alec told us about Robert Frank and Allen Ginsberg who taught a class together called "snapshot poetics" which was basically "all about what you see and not questioning it and not overthinking". He taped that quote on his steering wheel as a reminder to stop to try so hard. Perhaps I should do the same! I'll do !

Your thoughts about?

PS: I'm a big fan of Alec Soth, the way he photographs and even more the way he edits, sequences and put together a book These points are also mentioned in the video. Unfortunately the sound is not always good...but I think that nevertheless the video is interesting.

Video link here: https://youtu.be/8nnkUwI7ZKI

 

[Timmyjoe]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for sharing this. I'd be interested in watching the video. I might be a little dense this morning, but I'm not finding a link to the video in your post. Am I missing something?

Best,
-Tim

 

[robert blu]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for sharing this. I'd be interested in watching the video. I might be a little dense this morning, but I'm not finding a link to the video in your post. Am I missing something?

Best,
-Tim

Hi Tim, here it is : https://youtu.be/8nnkUwI7ZKI it should work!
Edited the original post to make the link more visible 😉

 

[JohnWolf]

Thank you, Robert. It's a long video so I'll watch later.

I love the phrase "snapshot poetics." That about sums up my photographic aspiration at this point in my life.

John

 

[robert blu]

Thank you, Robert. It's a long video so I'll watch later.

I love the phrase "snapshot poetics." That about sums up my photographic aspiration at this point in my life.

John

I just went through your "film journal" and looking at your photos I would say you do well with the "snapshot poetics", very well!!
I specially like the "dress shirt, morning window" because of simple subject and how you framed it and the "dinner party" with its excellent B&W tones. Congrats!

 

[JohnWolf]

Thank you, Robert. I particularly appreciate your dress shirt comment.

It was a photograph much like that one that got me started in photography. I saw it in a book - a dress shirt in superb BW, though not in a window. I was gobsmacked that a photograph of something so mundane and inconsequential could be so evocative. I wanted to do that. I think those whites are one of the main reasons I'm still drawn to film. I've never been able to replicate them with digital.

I remembered the photo being by Ruth Orkin. A few years ago I contacted her daughter, who manages the Orkin archive, hoping to purchase a print. She said she had no knowledge of the picture.

Anyway, back to Soth. I like his statement, "...the whole battle is having some sort of structure but also letting go."

John

 

[agentlossing]

I'll watch the video when I have the time, thank you! But let me also say, a class taught by those guys on "snapshot poetics" is something I'd give a kidney to be able to experience!

 

[robert blu]

The video proposed in the opening post is quite long, not everyone have time to watch it from beginning to the end.

Here is a shorter video (5 min) from Alec : https://youtu.be/tyVoCUEngsg about his latest work and "what it means to be a photorapher...the desire to memorialize life...when life is just gonna keep whipping on by" .

Inspiring words for photographers with a reference to Walt Whitman "The song of the open road"

"From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list [...]
Out of the dark confinement! out from behind the screen!"

You can read here: https://mackbooks.eu/blogs/news/the-weight-of-a-giant-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-alec-soth-on-a-pound-of-pictures

I think I have to try to be more open minded when making photo! My next exercise !

 

[Saganich]

I agree that the idea of 'letting go' is the ability to abandon your intention at the moment you're trying to do something intentionally. For example, I play darts competitively, and in a dart match you have a strategy, a plan, you step-up with definite intention about what you're aiming at. But when you throw your dart goes elsewhere. Maybe you're trying for 20 but hit 18. At that moment I'll decide to go with 18 and abandon my intention of closing 20's. More than average that works out as a benefit because otherwise, you're forcing yourself against the moment. You can always get back to your original intention, but the ability to go with the moment makes the entire endeavor stronger.

 

[JohnWolf]

Just saw the quote below from Charles Harbutt, one of my favorite photographers. His well-known book, Travelog, has four sections and, as he says in the intro, was assembled from his collection, rather than shot as a project.

"I stopped working on 'projects' years ago. I was always protective of my freedom to make any picture I wanted, any way I wanted, any time I wanted. Projects took away that freedom and were a distraction."

John