photographic phases

[bobomoon]

A teacher of mine many years ago put it this way " Think of depression as the digestion of your highs". We all hit low points in our careers, relationships, etc. I usually don't look at other photographs when I feel I need a dose of inspiration. Looking at others work only makes me extremely critical. As many of us find, inspiration can come from anywhere and begin with almost anything. Film and literature provides me with a lot of food for thought, which in turn, eventually, finds its way into inspiration. I read a lot of poetry. It always seems to help me.

Here's a rediscovery of one by Robert Creeley -

WATER

Your personal world echoes
in ways common enough,
a parking lot, common cold,
the others sitting at the table.

I have no thoughts myself,
more than myself. I feel
here enough now to think
at least I am here.

So you should get to
know me? Would I be
where you looked? Is it
hands across this body of water?

Is anyone out there,
they used to say, or was
they also some remote chance
of people, a company, together.

What one never knows is,
is it really real, is
the obvious obvious, or else
a place one lives in regardless.

Thanks for the R. Creeley poem. Reading it here was unexpectedly nice. The world should miss his absence more and more.

 

[bmattock]

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/gunner/bad-poets.html

"In the bad type of thin pamphlets, in hand-set lines on imported paper, people's hard lives and hopeless ambitions have expressed themselves more directly and heartbreakingly than they have ever expressed in any work of art: it is as if the writers had sent you their ripped-out arms and legs, with 'This is a poem' scrawled on them in lipstick." by Randall Jarrell

 

[sf]

Most of us have experienced a slump when there seems to be absolutely nothing worthwhile or interesting to photograph.

Some of us have gone through phases like Bill M has posted of, a time when we think our photography absolutely sucks and we are completely talentless and hopeless. I suggested to Bill that this could be an indicator of artistic growth.

If a photographer is blissfully happy and uncritical of his/her photographic work, where is the impedus or motivation for improvement? This type of phase could be an indicator of moving on/forward and seeing one's previous work as developmentally less refined. Better work is on the horizon.

I have the impression that many sincere artists struggle with these growing pains. Those who don't may not be self-aware or critical enough of their work.

Your thoughts?

I agree with your perspective on this. This sort of self criticism is another thing that separates photographers from non-photographers and hence their works from art and non-art. But that it another thread - and IS.

I go through periods where I think my work sucks, when it seems like I might be better served to just sell off the camera equipment and instead sink the money into a gym membership and a down payment on a bike and a laptop. I look through my work and don't see any real substance. I begin to see the flaws in my compositions, in what I COULD have had in an image but was incapable of grasping for lack of skill or talent or both at the time. My work appears one (two) dimensional to me and just becomes more like a postcard or a snapshot.

During my SLR period - with the Pentax 645nII and Mamiya 645E - I went through this sort of self criticism very hard. I really liked photography, but couldn't really discern what it was about it that i loved so much, or how I was able to really manifest that appreciation in my work. It was all so lifeless. Joyless, maybe?

Coming to RFF, buying my way out of AF SLR territory and into manual focus RF territory was a major step in the right direction, and since then I've had few dull weeks. Having a good social environment where one can really communicate with others, and having a tool that requires a bit more thought than an SLR really helps as well.

Self criticism is how you grow. Definitely. I spend a long time studying my failures in order to make moves towards producing better work in the future. It pushes me, when I've got my failures in mind alongside my goals, to get out there and really try to realize what's in the mind's eye.

 

[tedwhite]

A girlfriend is nearly always a good idea. (Or a boyfriend if you're a girl). But having a girlfriend who finds the visually intriguing that you missed (due, perhaps, to genuiine sloth or a temporary meltdown of artistic sensibility) is priceless.

I have had painfull periods in my life wherein I went out with a camera and couldn't see anything worth photographing and realized my mind was spinning its wheels. Yet, on another day, I found myself in a swap meet - a rather ordinary one at that - and shot six rolls of film. Obviously, I was engaged. Maybe one has to decide whether to concentrate the mind. Or not.

Ted

 

[back alley]

actually guys, i've seen your stuff and it does suck!!

sorry, couldn't resist.

brett may have a girlfriend but more importantly he has an art director.

i need a good editor.

joe

 

[RML]

A kid also helps, if the girlfriend is out of the question due to "family" circumstances. 🙂 I'm lucky to have both. And a new ZI. And a new L+15 coming up. And a summer holiday to look forward to. Damn! No wonder I don't feel quite in a rut right now. 😛

 

[PeterL]

Unlike with my day job, I feel I have absolutely no control over the elements that will bring success. That elusive nature of photography for me is what makes me grab the camera everyday on the way out the door, even though I know it will bring as much frustration as it does gratification.

I know the feeling, but I accept it. Just like my day job used to be & university is now, I feel I don't control what happens. With photography, I can control my exposure & focussing as much as I like, but I can't control composition because I can't control what's in front of my lens. With people photography, I basically get a very quiet and patient mood, because they'll be doing what they're doing and all I can do is be there and wait until it all comes together.

I don't control it, but I don't mind. The world is too big to control and it would be boring if it was controllable.


Peter.

 

[telenous]

Like others have said, most subjects and themes have already been explored, discussed, debated and ultimately photographed; most aspects of the human adventure exposed; and the trivia of everyday life recorded in the minutest of detail. This damning sense of repetition lingers over what we do, inducing that feeling of 'photographic ennui' as Copake-ham has very aptly put it.

But there's actually nothing wrong with being repetitive in your work or resembling the work of others. The kind of equipment we use, rangefinders in this case, excells in one particular domain of photography, that of street photography. There's a whole lot wide world out there, acting its everyday drama before our very eyes. Sure, others have documented it; and sometimes our photography feels like we are retelling the same old story; but it is a story to be told and retold. It's the only one we have - and its damn interesting!

I sort of have decided in the following plan. When I go out, I choose some location. It has to have some sort of interesting scenery or geometry about it. If its a new location, even better (that's why travelling is important, it provides for unexplored locations). And then I sit quietly. And wait. Something will happen. In fact, something is bound to happen! People never fail to provide the drama. A simple gesture perhaps, an emotion, or even the everydayness of it all. Thank God, people never fall short of that expectation!

If I am unsatisfied with my photography it is not for lack of subject matter but rather for lack of readiness or courage or both. That only galvanizes my determination that next time I should - I will - do better.

As some of the people here are seasoned photographers, perhaps you have already thought of all that, in which case excuse the newbee enthusiasm. But I fail to find a reason to divest myself of the simple pleasure of photography: None other than to freeze-frame for a little longer the fleeting moment.